[1970-01-01]

Your two friends are factually correct. You somehow misinterpret how much water they consume.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-water-usage

[yellowapple]

If every American skipped a single burger per year, that'd entirely offset the combined water use of all American datacenters.

Datacenters, in other words, do not consume all that much water in the grand scheme of things. There are many, many better targets if water conservation is a genuine concern.

[adamrezich]

The energy grid use seems far more worrisome than water use. Why would anyone build an AI data center in a specifically “water-stressed region”?

[1970-01-01]

A: Because they can get away with it.