AI is hurting the environment: four times more water than expected is used to cool ChatGPT servers

Scientists at the University of California have conducted a study that shows that the use of different AI models can harm the Earth's ecology.

Here's What We Know

Scientists have found that while processing 10 to 50 ChatGPT and other similar AI requests, up to two litres of water are needed to cool servers, although it was previously thought that only half a litre was sufficient for this purpose.

Microsoft has confirmed that cooling hardware requires more liquid than the company had assumed. Thus, for 2023 and 2024, Microsoft, Google and Meta reported a 22.5 per cent, 17 per cent and 17 per cent increase in water usage respectively.

The researchers noted that although the statistics were collected only in the US using data from OpenAI's chatbot, such a problem also applies to other AI models in various countries.

It is not yet clear how to solve this situation, but it should be understood that the use of AI is at the initial stage and it will grow rapidly, and if you do not immediately begin to solve the problem of cooling servers, the Earth may expect a large-scale ecological disaster.

By the way, it was recently revealed that more than 250 million people use ChatGPT every week!

Source: San