“Artificial intelligence systems are thirsty,” writes Leo S. Lo in a recent column for The Conversation, an independent news organization.
Lo, the incoming University Librarian and Dean of Libraries at the University of Virginia, established the Task Force on AI Competencies for Library Workers for the Association of College and Research Libraries, where he serves as president. In addition to his role as Dean of Libraries, Lo will also serve as Advisor to the Provost for AI Literacy and as a Professor of Education at UVA.
In his Conversation article, titled “AI has a hidden water cost — here’s how to calculate yours,” Lo examines AI’s water usage, homing in on a Washington Post/UC Riverside investigation that revealed that the GPT-3 version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT system consumes as much as 500 milliliters of water for each short conversation a user has with it — think “a bottle of water per email.” Water is used both to cool AI data centers and by power plants generating electricity to power those data centers.
Lo points out that the study also reveals that AI systems’ water usage can vary widely based on climate and timing, and that there are clear ways to use AI more sustainably. He writes:
To me, as an academic librarian and professor of education, understanding AI is not just about knowing how to write prompts. It also involves understanding the infrastructure, the trade-offs, and the civic choices that surround AI.
Many people assume AI is inherently harmful, especially given headlines calling out its vast energy and water footprint. Those effects are real, but they’re only part of the story.
When people move from seeing AI as simply a resource drain to understanding its actual footprint, where the effects come from, how they vary, and what can be done to reduce them, they are far better equipped to make choices that balance innovation with sustainability.
Read his Conversation piece in full to find out promising alternatives to AI water usage, as well as a formula to calculate your own AI water footprint.
For those interested in learning more about AI, UVA Library offers an array of free events and workshops on the topic, covering how to use AI tools in programming, humanities research, and open education.