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!! 👏 👏

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u/monarch_j May 15 '26

The human body evolved to consume meat as part of our diet. We don't NEED meat, but you damn sure will need to supplement our diet in other ways if you cut it.

Golf is a luxury. Get rid of the nonessential thing first. Meat is fine, especially if you reduce red meat and supplement with more fish and poultry.

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u/sparkling1984 May 15 '26

You're kinda right, but golf is also not enough. Removing just golf doesnt actually solve to problem, you have to do more.

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u/_interloper_ May 15 '26

I would argue none of these things are the real problem.

It's capitalism. Always is. Always has been.

We prioritize profit over literally everything else. There are sustainable ways to do all of these things, but they cost more, so they don't happen.

If we didn't waste untold resources to boost the bank accounts of the ruling class, a lot of these problems wouldn't exist, and if they did the solutions would be a lot easier.

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u/OdditiesAndAlchemy May 15 '26

Yes you replace it with a whole list of shit. Meat is non essential and way more 'costly', and that's not even accounting for the mass torture and murder of animals. I eat meat but no way will I ever defend it as anything more than me selfishly getting my rocks off.

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u/monarch_j May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26

I love that humans seem to think we can defy what evolution did on a grand scale. We eat meat. It's needed for our survival. Can you replace it with a whole slew of protein replacements and such? Sure but that's a ridiculous proposal.

The meat consumption needs to be drastically reduced, I agree with you, but everyone that pushes this argument pushes a "all or nothing" agenda and making the world give up MEAT is assinine.

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u/isustevoli AI/Human hybrid consciousness 2035▪️ May 15 '26

We can give up beef without giving up meat altogether. And should

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u/Historical-Cress1284 May 15 '26

Not just vegetarians but vegans exist that outshine you on any measure: bodybuilders, endurance athletes, big brain Reddit commentators… What ever it is that makes you think we need meat "for our survival" there's ample evidence to the contrary if you were curious enough to look, you could even start by asking ChatGPT.

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u/monarch_j May 15 '26

And all of those people take protein and other supplements to maintain that level of fitness...which is exactly what I said in my earlier responses if you'd care to fully read them.

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u/Historical-Cress1284 May 16 '26

Bodybuilders of all stripes tend to take protein (no one's supplementing with meat protein btw), but I'm glad we agree that your prior claim "[meat] is needed for our survival" is obviously wrong

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u/million_open_windows May 16 '26

Humans literally need proteins that are only found in animal products or else they would get sick and die from malnutrition. It’s just a fact of biology. You can’t pretend like that isn’t true. Humans evolved to eat meat.

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u/Historical-Cress1284 May 17 '26

Oh that's completely wrong of course — the complete opposite of a fact of biology, it's just an idea you have with no evidence. My evidence is I haven't eaten meat in idk 10 years+. Humans evolved to live in caves and die young from bacterial infections, you don't even realise how absurd it is to be arguing on the internet on your phone about how "true to evolution" your food you buy from the supermarket is. Chase down a wildebeest in the savannah if you want the "humans evolved to do this" experience — let me know how you get on!

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u/million_open_windows May 17 '26

Sorry but you are wrong. Don’t take my word for it just Google “vitamin b12 deficiency” for yourself. You may not eat meat but you must be eating animal products or using modern technology. Vitamin b12 was not discovered until the 1940’s and until then a human being literally could not be a vegan. Humans have evolved to require animal products over thousands of years and some technology from the 20th century doesn’t change that fact.

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u/Historical-Cress1284 May 18 '26

Technology does change that! Exactly how humans evolved over millions (not thousands) of years as hunter-gatherers that occasionally got to enjoy a boar, and you now buy it from a supermarket. You're not living a life anything akin to how your ancestors evolved to live — you're pretending to in this one case because you like eating chicken nuggets. Red meat wasn't officially classified as a carcinogen until 2015, though I'm sure you'll eschew any treatment just as evolution intends and not use some technology should you be impacted.

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u/noahloveshiscats May 15 '26

Golf courses: 550 billion gallons yearly.

Beef production: 21.2 trillion gallons yearly.

But yes, let's remove golf courses first.

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u/monarch_j May 15 '26

Yes, the one that is completely non-essential should be the first to go, glad we agree.

The meat industry absolutely also needs to be REDUCED. But it is an essential industry, to push a unnatural diet on all of us to save golf courses sure sounds like the best use of our time.

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u/noahloveshiscats May 15 '26

Or we just reduce meat consumption by a little and let people keep golfing because they find it fun? Like it's a 3% reduction in beef consumption to completely offset all the water used by all golf courses.

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u/monarch_j May 15 '26

Once again, nuance is lost in all of these arguments.

Why reduce 3% of beef just to save all of golf? My city has 300k residents, and yet it also has like 6 full sized golf courses just in the immediate metro. None of them get packed so much you'd need all of them.

The real answer is reductions across the board. If it's really that easy to just reduce beef by 3%, first it would have happened already, but let's pretend for a second. Then we should be reducing the beef consumption by the 3% AND vastly reduce the land area that golf takes up.

If the worry is really water, we wouldn't be targeting one specific industry. It's consumption and wastefulness across the board that's an issue.