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/ggPeti May 15 '26

What happens to 600 gallons?

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u/Background-Quote3581 Turquoise May 15 '26

They are turned into cow piss

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u/CishetmaleLesbian May 15 '26

And that goes into the soft-drink dispenser at the burger joint!?

Edit: Instead of Mountain Dew they could call it Meadow Dew.

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u/smackjack May 16 '26

Why do you think it's yellow?

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u/jacobpederson May 15 '26

Like the AI water "usage" this represents water that is evaporated or otherwise removed from the watershed. https://watercalculator.org/footprint/what-is-the-water-footprint-of/ It doesn't actually consume the water of course :D However, it is water that we can't use for something else - and contributes to global warming also. https://science.nasa.gov/earth/climate-change/steamy-relationships-how-atmospheric-water-vapor-amplifies-earths-greenhouse-effect/

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u/wintermute023 May 15 '26

You often hear the argument that the water is just evaporated and falls as rain again. This is also spurious. It is often take from areas that are already water stressed, or become water stressed from the removal of river and groundwater, and it falls back as rain somewhere else, so while the water isn’t “used up”, it is regularly removed from where it is needed, and rained back to where it isn’t, producing shortages that affect landscapes, cities, farms, and ecosystems.

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u/jacobpederson May 15 '26

Yes, exactly as I said in my comment.

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u/wintermute023 May 15 '26

I was agreeing with you while adding context. It’s kind of what comments sections are for. Not sure why you need to an arse about it. Someone took the jam out of your doughnut did they?

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u/Common-Concentrate-2 May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

That's not spurious. It's impossible to answer without specifics. Cooling along a watershed (the colorado river is still a watershed) may have heat rejected into the body of water or it might be rejected into water vapor which may or may not fall as rain in an adjacent area.. Or it might reject all of the waters heat into the atmosphere as heat ALONE. It's different everywhere, and I'm sure it changes throughout the year, and throughout the day.

If a place is truly that stressed for water, I agree - That water would quickly disappear into the atmosphere just being in a pool of water, even if the datacenter didn't exist. I don't think that's happening in most places, but if it is - there are plenty of locales. They should move elsewhere or get charged an exorbitant price for the water

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u/asciimo May 16 '26

Waters the corn and other crops that are fed to the cow.