AI Tech Behind ChatGPT Spurs Water Usage Concerns. Here’s How
Microsoft-backed OpenAI, depends on a substantial amount of water for cooling its high-performance supercomputers used for training AI systems to emulate human writing.
This water is sourced from the Raccoon and Des Moines river basins in central Iowa, AP reported.
Microsoft reported in its recent environmental report that its global water consumption increased 34% from 2021 to 2022 (to almost 1.7 billion gallons).
Alluding to Microsoft’s heavy investment in generative AI and partnership with OpenAI, Shaolei Ren, a researcher at the University of California, told AP, “It’s fair to say the majority of the growth is due to AI.”
In a paper due to be published later this year, Ren’s team estimated that every time we give ChatGPT a sequence of between 5 and 50 prompts, it consumes 500 millilitres of water.