Li et al. (2023) produced the first systematic analysis of AI's water footprint, an environmental cost that had been almost entirely overlooked:
- GPT-3 training consumed approximately 700,000 liters of fresh water for cooling data centers
- A typical ChatGPT conversation (20-50 questions) uses roughly 500 ml of water — about a standard water bottle
- Microsoft's water consumption increased by 34% in 2022, largely attributed to AI workloads
- Google's water consumption rose by 20% in the same period
Why Water Matters
Data centers require enormous amounts of water for cooling. This is particularly concerning because many data centers are located in water-stressed regions. As AI usage scales globally, the water footprint could exacerbate existing water scarcity crises.
Source
Li, P. et al. (2023). Making AI Less "Thirsty". arXiv:2304.03271.