Generative AI is exploding. The heads of the major AI labs travel with the President to global conferences, autonomous vehicles are already being used in our wars, and entire school systems are revolting over the use of AI in the classrooms (or, conversely, the lack of AI in the classroom).
Surrounding this AI explosion is an explosion in the consumption of resources, particularly water. Communities across the country are mounting revolts against massive new data centers that promise thousands of new jobs, but are actually sucking up astronomical amounts of water.
These data centers aren’t new. They’ve been around for decades. But those that support AI’s insatiable thirst for water are posing critical threats to drought-stricken regions like the Southwest. Even folks in the Great Lakes region are concerned.
So what do we do about it? Michael Bennett, the Associate Vice Chancellor for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Strategy at the University of Illinois-Chicago, thinks we have more power than we might imagine.
