While data centers’ massive direct water use has come under scrutiny, the electricity that powers them consumes even more of the resource, according to a new report from the sustainability nonprofit.

Golf courses and data centers both require significant water. Which has the bigger footprint? Who uses more water?

Data centers have become an easy target in the fight over water, power and the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence.

Create an account to access more content and features on IEEE Spectrum, including the ability to save articles to read later, download Spectrum Collections, and participate in conversations with ...

This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more. This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more. The debate over AI's water consumption often overlooks the critical issue: peak daily demand ...

All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Gizmodo may earn an affiliate commission. Reading time 5 minutes ...

Each time you ask an AI chatbot to summarize a lengthy legal document or conjure up a cartoon squirrel wearing glasses, it sends a request to a data center and strains an increasingly scarce resource: ...

Artificial intelligence systems are thirsty, consuming as much as 500 milliliters of water – a single-serving water bottle – for each short conversation a user has with the GPT-3 version of OpenAI’s ...