Shaolei Ren, a researcher at the University of California, Riverside, published a study in April investigating the resources needed to run buzzy generative AI models, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT.
Hundreds of millions of monthly users all submitting questions on the popular chatbot quickly illustrates just how "thirsty" AI models can be.
The study's authors warned that if the growing water footprint of AI models is not sufficiently addressed, the issue could become a major roadblock to the socially responsible and sustainable use of AI in the future.
For Google, meanwhile, total water consumption at its data centers and offices came in at 5.6 billion gallons in 2022, a 21% increase on the year before.
watch nowIt's notable, however, that their latest water consumption figures were disclosed before the launch of their own respective ChatGPT competitors.
Persons:
Shaolei Ren, Ren, Eitan Abramovich, OpenAI, Somya Joshi, Microsoft's Bing, Bard, Joshi, Paul Hanna
Organizations:
UNITED, EMIRATES, Tech, Microsoft, Google, University of California, Uruguay's Central Union, CNT, Afp, Getty, CNBC, Big Tech, Meta, SEI, U.S ., Stockholm Environment Institute, United, Inc, Talavera de la Reina, Bloomberg
Locations:
Dubai, Riverside, Montevideo, U.S, Stockholm, United Arab Emirates, Talavera de, Spain