Thirsty AI
By Samarth Singh
On 30th November 2022, a major breakthrough in Artificial Intelligence was announced: ChatGPT. ChatGPT is a useful tool, but it’s thirsty - and I mean it quite literally.
ChatGPT needs huge server rooms, and these server rooms are cool. A server room’s temperature is typically between 10 – 25 degrees Celsius (50 – 80 degrees Fahrenheit). This might seem counter-intuitive because machines continuously produce heat while using electricity. Naturally, server rooms would be hot, however, to avoid any technical breakdowns, server rooms are kept cool – and they use water to do it. A lot of it.
Google requested more than 2.3 billion liters of water for data centers in just three states alone. That’s enough to fill about 920 Olympic-sized swimming pools. And as AIs like Bard and ChatGPT rise, water consumption will rise as well. The University of California and the University of Texas examined the water consumption by Microsoft’s Data Centers and estimated that training ChatGPT (GPT 3) would’ve taken around 185,000 gallons (700,301.18 gallons).
ChatGPT uses 500ml of water for every 20-50 questions it answers. Multiply this by the number of questions asked by the 100 million users of ChatGPT, the amount of water is huge.
Given the environmental concern of drought, this comes as disturbing news. As the world is embracing AI, it is forgetting its environmental impact. A simple solution is the mindful use of the same. Don’t waste the capabilities of AI for the mere sake of convenience. After all, using AI is as good as using water, and we wouldn’t waste water, would we?
References:
Haris, M. (n.d.). ChatGPT’s Water Consumption: How Much Water for Every 20 Questions?". www.linkedin.com. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-much-water-does-chatgpt-drink-every-20-questions-answers-haris
DeGeurin, M. (2023, May 10). “Thirsty” AI: Training ChatGPT required enough water to fill a nuclear reactor’s cooling tower, study finds. Gizmodo. https://gizmodo.com/chatgpt-ai-water-185000-gallons-training-nuclear-1850324249
