Artificial intelligence is using gallons upon gallons of water. Microsoft alone used more than 2,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water in its data centres last year. The latest numbers are leading to yet more questions about the sustainability and environmental dangers of the growth of artificial intelligence and related technology. Artificial intelligence requires vast computing resources, undertaking deeply complex calculations on behalf of people around the world. AI systems tend to be run in the cloud rather than on individual people’s computers, meaning that companies running them must operate vast server farms to deal with the queries of their users. Those server farms in turn need to pump in water to cool themselves down, because of the heat generated by those computers. That has long been a concern for environmentalists, but the sharp growth in artificial intelligence has led to even more use. Microsoft’s water consumption rose 34 per cent between 2021 and 2022, according to its latest environmental report, highlighted by the Associated Press. It was up to almost 1.7 billion gallons. Not all of that is from artificial intelligence. But Shaolei Ren, a researcher at the University of California, Riverside working to better understand the environmental impact of AI told the AP that the “majority of the growth” is because of the technology. Google also said that its water use had increased by 20 per cent over the same period. That varied across its different data centres, which are based in different parts of the US. For each 5 to 50 prompts, or questions, put to ChatGPT, it uses 500 millilitres of water, according to a paper that will be published by Professor Ren and his team later this year. Many technology companies have expressed concerns about their own water use, and how to minimise any negative effects of their data centres. The environmental concerns can be especially pressing because the use of water can be focused in particular areas around a data centre, meaning that the damage may not be spread. Google said last year for instance that “Wherever we use water, we are committed to doing so responsibly”. That includes analysing where water is being used and how much stress it might put on the surrounding area, for instance. Read More AI can help generate synthetic viruses and spark pandemics, warns ex-Google executive China’s ‘government-approved’ AI chatbot says Taiwan invasion likely Google launches AI to go to meetings for you

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. & BOLTON, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 31, 2023--

By Lisa Pauline Mattackal The weak crypto market is wobbling through autumn. And winter's on its way. The

TL;DR: As of August 2, you can get 20TB of secure cloud storage with Prism

Find out Clive Rosfield's maximum level in Final Fantasy XVI.

H

You would think that a band named Rage Against the Machine would be pretty radical in terms of their politics, and you would be right, but that hasn’t stopped right-wingers complaining about a tweet from guitarist Tom Morello taking aim at Nazis. This is a controversial take for some conservatives, apparently. On Thursday, Morello tweeted a graphic which reads: “German saying: If nine people sit down at a table with one Nazi without protest, there are 10 Nazis at the table.” Pretty uncontroversial. As Uproxx notes, it’s not too far removed from the oft-cited quote from the late human rights activist Desmond Tutu: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” And yet, conservatives on Twitter – many of whom have paid the social media platform for a coveted blue tick – aren’t happy with the idea behind this thought experiment, with many getting angry over “communists” for some reason: They’re even kicking off under Morello’s tweet in the form of Community Notes – Twitter’s tool used to provide context to a post if it’s inaccurate. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter One anonymous user wrote “there’s little evidence that this is actually a German saying”, before linking to a tweet citing the phrase from an actual German person named Jens Foell. Oops. And to be clear about whether or not it is actually a German saying, one Reddit thread from 2018 saw users discuss its validity, with all but one claiming they haven’t come across it. However prominent the saying may be in Germany, we’d like to think many can get behind the sentiment no matter where it came from, but looking at the tweets above, we’d be wrong… Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

How to sell and smuggle Contraband in Starfield to make some big Credits and avoid any conflict with a controlling faction's law enforcement during Contraband Scans.

An adviser to Rishi Sunak has made a worrying confession about AI, and its ability to kill people in the near future, during a new interview with Talk TV. Matt Clifford is currently leading the prime minister on the government's Foundation Model Taskforce, using the likes of ChatGPT. "You can use AI today to create new recipes for bio weapons or to launch large-scale cyber attacks. These are bad things", he said. "You can have really very dangerous threats to humans that could kill many humans – not all humans – simply from where we would expect models to be in two years’ time." Click here to sign up for our newsletters

Senegal’s government has temporarily suspended mobile phone data as the country reels from days of deadly clashes between police and supporters of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko

Stock prices of chipmakers have soared over the last year as AI became the story of 2023. But in recent weeks, there's been a notable drop in those shares as growing tensions between the US and China cloud their outlook.

The EU commissioner in charge of enforcing Europe's new landmark rules on online content is heading to San Francisco on Thursday to ensure that...