We often think about the energy consumption and associated carbon emissions involved in streaming and other online activities, but did you know that using generative artificial intelligence also consumes a lot of water? A 2023 University of California report estimated that ChatGPT uses about 16 ounces of water to answer just 50 questions.
What can you do? Ask your AI provider — or any online service — to reuse water instead of ingesting water from the environment to cool their data centers. In fact, the energy from the hot water they generate could be used to produce electricity, lowering the overall impact of digital technology. Don’t forget, when you pose a question to an AI, it’s going to take a drink of water.
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