Microsoft's A.I. tools cause water consumption surge, raising concerns for residential supply

Microsoft's global water consumption has increased by 34% from 2021 to 2022, largely attributed to its investment in generative AI and partnership with OpenAI. The development of large language models like ChatGPT requires significant amounts of water for cooling purposes, with estimates suggesting that ChatGPT consumes 500 milliliters of water for every series of prompts or questions. Google has also reported a 20% growth in water use, largely due to its AI work. Concerns have been raised in Iowa, where Microsoft's data centers are located, about the impact on residential water supply. Microsoft and OpenAI have stated that they are working on improving the efficiency of their AI systems and reducing their environmental footprint.