AI is an energy and water hog, here’s what you can do to counter that

WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� As the world tries to curb human-caused and not run dry of water, every online query is increasing our environmental footprint and exacerbating the problem.

and the data centers they require use growing amounts of energy and are water hogs 鈥� and AI companies aren’t transparent about how much of those resources they use, experts said. So each time you turn to the internet and seek an AI-fueled response, it’s gobbling up precious resources.

鈥淎I is going in the opposite direction to decarbonization efforts,鈥� said cognitive computer scientist Sasha Luccioni, co-founder and chief scientific officer of the Sustainable AI Group. 鈥淲e should be thinking about where we are going towards. If you鈥檙e recycling and a vegan but then you鈥檙e using ChatGPT to do your multiplication for you, well that鈥檚 kind of against the trend.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 like one other thing among many to think about when you鈥檙e like developing these daily habits,鈥� Luccioni said. 鈥淚t is not too late. You are not obliged to use AI for everything. You can opt out, you can have a say and you can kind of just like think about how you engage with this technology.鈥�

But she also said Big Tech companies are making it hard by 鈥渋ntegrating generative AI into everything. … There’s like this bait-and-switch going on. I feel that nowadays you use the same tools that you used to use, but now they’re generative AI.鈥�

There are a few ways climate conscious individuals aren鈥檛 completely powerless, said several experts in water use, artificial intelligence, data center placement and environmental sustainability.

Use AI less

The advice from experts is simple: Just use AI less often.

鈥淭he cleanest form of AI use is no use,鈥� Kaveh Madani, a water scientist and director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health in Canada. 鈥淪o when you could avoid using AI, don’t use it.鈥�

Don’t use it for simple things. Don’t use it for calculations, directions, store hours, recipes or shopping lists, which are all searches people used to do without AI, but now do it with AI and waste power and water, Luccioni said.

鈥淵eah, it鈥檚 great. You can generate a chocolate chip cookie recipe with Claude, or you can open a damn book. Like, those still exist. You really don鈥檛 need Claude,鈥� Luccioni said. 鈥淵ou really don鈥檛 need all of these generative AI technologies to do day-to-day tasks. I do agree there are some productivity gains to be had but I think that it鈥檚 a pretty small percentage of what people are currently using.鈥�

And when you make a query, make it concise because more information translates into more computing and more energy and water used. No need to be polite. Don’t give unnecessary background information, Madani and others said.

Every query means more energy use, experts said.

The power and water cost of a query

Last year, global data centers , more than all but 10 countries of the world, and it is expected to more than double in the next four years, according to from the United Nations University. By then, it will have moved up in rankings to just behind five countries for power use.

By 2030, just the electricity that data centers use 鈥� not including the massive amounts of water needed to cool them 鈥� would require nearly 2.5 trillion gallons of water (9.3 trillion liters), which is enough drinking water for the entire world for 1.7 years, said Madani, the study’s co-author.

Getting an AI text response is the equivalent to using an efficient light bulb for two and a half minutes, but that’s being done 2.5 billion times a day with ChatGPT alone, according to the report and Madani. Using AI to generate a complex video is the equivalent of 42 hours of that light bulb burning and using a gallon of water (4 liters), he said.

Lack of transparency is a problem

Except for a mention in a blogpost and scant information, private AI companies aren’t transparent about the energy and water costs of queries, said Luccioni and other experts who have tried to calculate those costs. That reality forces them to just make estimates based on less common open source AI.

鈥淲e have no way of knowing and getting a sense of the amount of energy,鈥� said University of Michigan computer science professor Mosharaf Chowdhury, who tracks energy consumption of open source models.

鈥淚f there鈥檚 no transparency, we have no choice. We鈥檙e really not choosing. We are being given whatever is being given to us,鈥� said Ana Pinheiro Privette, a former top sustainability official for Amazon Web Services, who also used to direct the University of Illinois鈥� water security center and was a data scientist at NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the power. The power is to say 鈥業 actually want to understand what I鈥檓 consuming鈥�.鈥�

Forced into AI use but you can opt out

When you go online, many search engines, including Google, answer via AI and promote it, without users asking for machine learning to kick in. You have to opt out of AI, when you should have to opt in, Luccioni said.

鈥淓nd users, you and me, we have absolutely no control other than saying 鈥極K we don鈥檛 want to use any of it’ and even then the companies force it onto us,鈥� Chowdhury said.

You can opt out of AI in Google searches by putting 鈥�-ai鈥� at the end of your search, Luccioni said. Or you can click on 鈥淲eb鈥� in search options.

There are search engines that reduce their carbon footprints by planting trees and use less energy in their AI, such as , Luccioni said. And search engines and have no-AI options.

Consumers and neighbors have some power

鈥淭he big power I think the consumer has is the market message because I鈥檝e seen that when I worked at Amazon,鈥� Privette said. 鈥淭hey listen. They listen if everybody suddenly starts caring about not having a footprint.鈥�

Years ago, when data centers wanted to build in an area, it was no problem. Now that they are multiplying in high population centers and people are speaking up and against them, said Privette. For example, data centers in two Virginia counties near Washington used 2.1 billion gallons (8 billion liters) of water in 2023.

Balaji Tammabattula, chief operating officer of BaRupOn which makes energy-ready data center campuses, said, 鈥渢he moment you say that you鈥檙e building a data center, there鈥檚 a backlash. The data center is the new boogeyman.鈥�

So he said companies like his have to listen and when they do, they use less water and energy.

鈥淎I is not going anywhere,鈥� Tammabattula said. 鈥淚t has to be done. But it has to be with the help of the community, where we’re understanding the concerns of the community.鈥�

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