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by Windchaser 1 hour ago
Water usage goes up with data centers because more cooling is needed when you run the hardware harder.

So: if you're running the models on your own machine, presumably you're not running them as often, and air cooling is sufficient. But, at the same time, this is less efficient in terms of hardware use; the data centers need water cooling specifically because they're getting more bang from their buck from their hardware, by running their hardware harder.

So that's the tradeoff: more hardware-use efficiency means more water usage.

2 comments

Almonds and avocados use two orders of magnitude more water.

You can start adjusting your consumption of those products.

that water is recirculated. nobody sends it down the drain after one loop