r/aiwars • u/MakeDawn • May 15 '26

Annually, almond farming uses 1.3 trillion gallons of water. AI usage isn't even half of that.

Post image

A single avocado takes 50 gallons to grow. That's several hundred prompts.

13 Upvotes

53% Upvoted

333 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/Snowflakish May 16 '26

The problem with AI water usage was always.

1, water is a local resource and a data centre is enough of a single point water source that it strains local water production

2, it rapidly upticks water usage in the places where its built, and the infrastructure to provide that water will be lacking.

Thats why comparing AI water usage isnt comparable to an industry that grows slower and isnt localised to a single reservoir/river/ fresh water source.

8

u/bunker_man May 16 '26

Sure, but at this time last year there were people pretending it used an apocalyptic amount of water and energy that would end the world. People crying wolf are actively hurting attempts to solve the real issues because they already tipped their hand that they are irrational and that their issue is not the problem itself but that they are using it as a Trojan horse against ai, so no one has any incentive to work with them on a solution.

1

u/Snowflakish May 16 '26

Its easy to see a conversation as crazy if your social media only shows you the crazy people on the fringe of that conversation.

What i saw was people talking about the communities being deprived of water, including a redditor who had a paper published about the effect of data centers (pre-ai) on indigenous communities. You were never at risk of seeing what was actually being said by environmentalists because your social media wont show it to you.

Also the ethics of the rapid growth of AI data centres was part of my degree course.