In 2020, Microsoft President Brad Smith announced that the company would reduce its water consumption and even become "water positive" by 2030. This means that Microsoft would replenish more water than it consumes. At the time, this goal seemed achievable, but the rapid rise of generative AI has completely changed the playing field. The construction of new data centers has accelerated, and with it the need for water for cooling.
As water-intensive data centres expand worldwide, their impact on sanitation, inequality and disease is emerging as a serious and under-examined threat. Bubble is probably the word most associated with AI right now, though we are slowly understanding that it is not just an economic time bomb; it also carries significant public health risks. Beyond the release of pollutants, the massive need for clean water by AI data centres can reduce sanitation and exacerbate gastrointestinal illness in nearby communities, placing additional strain on local health infrastructure.
The 2022 memo, viewed by the Guardian as well as the investigative non-profit SourceMaterial, found that Amazon used 105 billion gallons of water in 2021, as much as 958,000 US households or a "city bigger than San Francisco," as the document put it. However, in the run-up to a November 2022 PR campaign called "Water Positive," Amazon only disclosed 7.7 billion gallons of water use per year - an enormous discrepancy.
Data centers are rapidly expanding to enhance computing capabilities, yet they consume significant electricity and water, thereby raising concerns over competition with human water needs.
AI data centers' carbon emissions are expected to surge 11-fold by 2030, with predictions that these centers will consume 612 terawatt-hours of electricity, driving a 3.4% increase in global carbon emissions.
