Artificial intelligence technology behind ChatGPT was built in Iowa – with a lot of water::As they race to capitalize on a craze for generative AI, leading tech developers including Microsoft, OpenAI and Google have acknowledged that growing demand for their AI tools carries hefty costs, from expensive semiconductors to an increase in water consumption.
I get why evaporative cooling is an economic issue and a challenge for a local water company but is it an environmental issue? It seems like it would just go back into the water cycle like any other water that evaporates.
The issue is that the process doesn’t put the water immediately back to where it was pulled from. That water is lost until the water cycle brings it back to the area
Pull enough water water out of an environment before it can be replenished and the ecosystem will drastically change
I wonder if this could be done by taking and returning water from a continually cold lake, like Lake Superior.
Yes, one of the primary datacenters in downtown Toronto (151 front street) is primarily cooled from pulling cold water from the bottom of lake Ontario and cycling the warm back. I’ve been in there a number of times, the pipes were way bigger then I expected - pretty cool stuff
So, they’re using evaporative cooling for this?
Why does every fad tech come with a huge environmental cost?
Eating burgers to destroy the environment was good enough for my pappy and it’s good enough for me! Kids these days with their new-fangled environment destruction techniques. Pshaw.
On a more serious note, people are eager to criticize stuff that has a relatively tiny effect while there’s a much bigger problem they’re part of.
If it becomes illegal or taxed enough to hurt, they could start using heat pumps and burriwd exhangers
Could this be somehow combined with salt water, so the evaporated water would then be drinkable?
I’m not an expert, but I think saltwater has a lower heat capacity than freshwater (like how pasta water boils faster with salt in it)
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