UN Report Warns AI Data Centers Could Double Water Use by 2030
The report says AI already drives 20% of data-centre power use and could raise that share to 40% by 2030.
- On Thursday, the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health released a report warning global AI data centers could consume 945 terawatt-hours of electricity by 2030, nearly triple the combined annual electricity of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nigeria.
- Data from the report challenges the consensus that training consumes the most energy, finding that inference now accounts for 80% to 90% of total consumption as billions use these tools daily.
- AI operations could require 14,500 square kilometres of land and 9.3 trillion litres of water by 2030, sufficient to provide drinking water to 8.1 billion people for 1.6 years.
- Tshilidzi Marwala, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, noted that infrastructure concentration creates a "large digital divide," as 90% of specialized AI capacity is located in the United States and China.
- To avert environmental harm, the study calls for a "responsible AI ecosystem," urging governments to implement standardized reporting and developers to prioritize "efficiency by design" when selecting models.
92 Articles
92 Articles
Data centers worldwide will consume twice as much energy and water in 2030 as they do now. And the rapid growth in the number of data centers will require raw materials…
Energy, water use, pollution of data centers rival countries
WASHINGTON — The environmental footprint of data centers already rivals some of the world's largest countries, according to a United Nations University report, which also predicts their water and energy use and pollution will double in just four years as…
As the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) accelerates, it also increases its energy footprint: by 2025 data centers supporting AI left 4.5 trillion litres of water sufficient to fill 1.8 million Olympic pools.This amount of water would meet the domestic demand of 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a report by the United Nations Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) published on Wednesday.The document n…
The rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) is creating new environmental problems related to energy and water resources. The United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) announced on the 3rd that it is analyzing the impacts of AI's power consumption on climate, water, and land…
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 46% of the sources are Center
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
