Three clicks to write a play or create a website: artificial intelligence systems (AI) may seem like magic, but their functions aren’t environmentally neutral. They’re intensive consumers of water and electricity. AIs don’t drink water, but data centers, where artificial intelligence systems are trained, use a lot of it to cool their servers. This is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to digital water consumption. AIs such as ChatGPT and Bard consume far more water and energy than your typical internet search. According to a preprint from the University of California, Riverside, a conversation with ChatGPT consumes around 50 cl of water, the equivalent of a small plastic bottle. With nearly 1.5 billion users a month, that adds up fast. Click here to read the full article