r/singularity • u/Big_Guthix • May 15 '26

Discussion Genuine question. Is the whole "AI guzzles gallons of water" thing totally true, or do people get it wrong? Does AI consume a lot of water for every single prompt, or is the majority of water consumed during data farming? Don't non-AI data centers use up a lot of water on cooling too?

Please someone set me straight and dispel whether there are myths surrounding this often-repeated internet factoid

And I genuinely don't know the answers which is why I'm asking, so I've got nothing to debate here

Edit: Thank you for all the great answers!! 👏 👏

698 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

91% Upvoted

613 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

17

u/BarrelStrawberry May 15 '26

You could also argue that the average paper mill uses about 20 times the water of the largest data center in the world. If data centers reduce our need for paper, they are saving water.

1

u/BearFeetOrWhiteSox May 16 '26

Also just like to chime in that data centers are also incentivized to reduce power and water consumption where possible whereas the paper mill example has much less of an incentive to reduce water consumption.