Did you know that every time you talk to ChatGPT it drinks 500ml of water? Or that Microsoft disclosed that its global water consumption spiked 34% from 2021 to 2022 to nearly 1.7 billion gallons, or more than 2,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools? No, me neither. These are statistics that I really struggled to get my head around and so I wanted to dig deeper to better understand how the advancement of technology is affecting our planet.
Shaloei Ren, a researcher at the University of California cited in one paper that ‘Microsoft’s global water usage surged to 34 per cent from 2021 to 2022 (to nearly 1.7 billion gallons). It is due to heavy investment in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and partnership with OpenAI’/ He stated, “It’s fair to say the majority of the growth is due to AI.”
So why is OpenAI using so much water? It appears that Microsoft-backed OpenAI pulls water from the watershed of the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers in central Iowa. This water is used to cool powerful supercomputers as they trained its AI systems to mimic human writing. On hot days, data centres need to pump in water to a cooling tower outside the warehouse-sized buildings and the demand for water for cooling will only increase because of rising average temperatures due to climate change.
In response to growing concerns, Microsoft said in a statement, “We are strengthening how we manage water within Microsoft, while working to improve the way the world evaluates and manages water today and for future generations.” The company told Associated Press, “We will continue to monitor our emissions, accelerate progress while increasing our use of clean energy to power data centers, purchasing renewable energy, and other efforts to meet our sustainability goals of being carbon negative, water positive and zero waste by 2030”
However, Microsoft are not the only guilt conglomerate, it turns out that Google’s water consumption has also increased after growing AI efforts. As per Google’s 2023 Environmental Report, the tech giant used 5.6 billion gallons of water last year. This accounts for 20 per cent increase that is attributed to the company’s shift towards AI efforts. As per a report by Insider, Google’s planned data center in Arizona switched to “air-cooled technology” due to water shortage in the area.
This isn’t about abandoning future advancements in tech, many of these will benefit us greatly, but it’s about keeping ourselves informed about the negative affects it may also have and using this information to make smarter and greener decisions where we can.
Here at Upcycl3 we are primarily an ecommerce platform but at the heart of this lies a deep-rooted belief in responsible consumption. We understand the environmental challenges our world faces, and we refuse to be part of the problem. Every product you find on our site has been carefully selected based on its eco-friendly credentials, from its sourcing to its packaging. But we are always learning and always looking for ways we can support a greener future in the way we do things (even using AI!)
We believe in empowering our customers to make informed choices, with us, you can shop confidently, knowing that every purchase contributes to a brighter, greener future for generations to come and in return we promise to ensure that we are doing everything we can to do the same.
