AI Thirst
A client texts with a note.
“You know it’s bad when…” with a link to an article about California Governor Newsom vetoing a data center water disclosure bill.
My heart sank.
While farmers are required to report water, big tech marches along unfettered by the politicians. This one no doubt is planning a presidential run and is lining his pockets while planning ahead.
Just last week at the Outsell CEO Summit, CEOs exchanged predictions about their view of the future. It’s a powerful combination: each of their firms brings some unique point of view based on what they cover and who they serve.
Each CEO does too based on their daily dialog with their market, their suppliers, their political leader, owners, or investors. It adds up to a powerful combination — the alchemy in a crowdsourced point of view of what the future holds. It was a don’t miss event.
One of the things I posited:
Water is going to be the gating factor to generative AI and the all-consuming power-hungry beast that it is. I’ve blogged about water and data centers in the past. But there is simply not enough of this natural resource to satiate 8 billion people, water the crops necessary to feed us all, and consume the estimated .32 milliliters of water used per AI query.
It’s a small amount until it isn’t. A quick Google search says there are approximately 2.5 to 3.0 prompts daily just on ChatGPT alone. I just used .32 milliliters myself to get that answer!
Multiply that by all the people on the planet, all the queries and prompts we send into the big beast in the sky, and all the data centers that have to work in harmony, thirstier than ever.
We better turbo charge desal. That’s about all I can say. So, while this non-sense goes on, our governor in all his infinite wisdom says:
“As the global epicenter of the technology sector, California is well positioned to support the development of this critically important digital infrastructure in the state, ….”
Tell us how???
Where are we going to get all the water needed for this so called critically important digital infrastructure when we can’t even keep our reservoirs full? My cynical self says he doesn’t care. He hopes to be in the White House when California runs dry.
So, we need water analytics more than ever and I encouraged our client to start measuring. To name names, count the big count, and put together the statistics that hold these companies accountable and makes their water consumption visible. If the politicians won’t do it — the information services firms in this industry can and will.
It goes back to our stated purpose and why we founded this company to begin with — to support the businesses that improve the planet with discovery, education, awareness, commerce — and yes — truth and accountability.
We need water analytics now more than ever. Big tech and politicians, with all their hubris is too busy feathering their nests.