The Impact of AI on Data Centers and Water Sustainability

The chapter explores the exponential growth of large language models and the increasing computational power needed to support AI projects, leading to a discussion on the sustainability challenges related to water and energy usage in data centers. It emphasizes the distinction between water consumption and withdrawal, highlighting the need for fair comparisons and addressing the global disparities in water resources. The conversation also covers the strategies employed by big tech companies to reduce environmental impact through carbon-aware computing and the optimization of model sizes to balance resource efficiency.