A new study has found that the planet has endured massive freshwater losses over the past twenty to thirty years due to the combined effects of climate change, overconsumption and drought. What does this have to do with Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
As AI technologies are being rapidly rolled out and have become more commonplace, the enormous amounts of energy and water they require are threatening climate goals. Does this mean that the coal fired power plants that were shut down will have to reopen if new renewable energy plants cannot open in time to meet this increase in demand? Data centers consumed about 4.4% of total U.S. electricity in 2023, with projections indicating this could double or triple by 2028 due to increasing demand from cloud computing and AI applications. It has been estimated that the demand for energy due to AI data centers could quadruple by 2030. These data centers also require large amounts of water used primarily for their cooling system, which comprises cooling towers, chillers, pumps, pipes, and other units. The increase in demand for water will probably follow this increase in demand for energy. While we can continue to develop more electricity generating plants to meet this increase in demand, we are limited in the ability to increase the availability of freshwater.
AI and crypto technologies are fueling a massive buildout of data centers — energy-hungry facilities that require electricity and water around the clock. Data centers are needed to train and deploy the AI technology. The state of Arizona alone has 150 new data centers that have greatly increased energy and water costs. On top of this, Arizona was dealing with water shortages even before these data centers were introduced. Consequently, a data center proposed by Amazon near Tucson, AZ was voted down recently because of its demand for electricity and water. Basically, the growth in demand for AI is causing a huge increase in electrical demand as well as water demand, both having a major impact on our environment.
With this increase in electrical demand, how will the Big Beautiful Bill affect the impact on the environment? The BBB could easily decrease the growth of renewable energy which could very well increase the output of coal and gas power plants. On the other hand, perhaps the growth in AI applications may improve the economy to an extent that technologies that utilize energy and water become more efficient and thus require less energy and water. Will this compensate for a temporary increase in energy and water by AI?
There may even be another negative to the growth in demand for AI. Some of the major applications for AI are E-commerce, education, robotics, healthcare and social media. The demand in education is definitely growing but not necessarily in a positive direction. Initially, the big concern with students using AI was for assistance with their schoolwork. Honor students make a point not to have chatbots do their homework and try to limit their interactions to mundane questions.
Students today are using AI more as a companion capable of providing advice and friendship. It seems like they are using AI for everything and eliminate the need for thinking. For the past number of years, conversations about cheating among the students and AI have been dominant. But now AI has become a go-to source for personal advice, emotional support, problem solving and everyday decision making. Some teens no longer talk to adults for advice as they just go to a chatbot. They also use chatbots to write emails or messages to strike the right tone in sensitive situations. They seem to no longer have trust in themselves to make a decision. There are even some teens that are using AI to explore their sexuality and for companionship.
While social media met the need to be seen, to be known and to meet other people, AI seems to complement another need that may be more important to young adults. They need to feel more attachment and to feel emotions and are using AI to meet that need. This is not as bad as depending on AI to do your thinking. What if you have been asked to meet a need by applying something creative. Since the AI algorithms are based on things that happened in the past, it is difficult to expect AI to be creative.