Photo by yucar studios on Unsplash
AI has become one of the most prolific pieces of technology in the world. Everyone has an AI bot, program, or feature they’re a fan of. For some, it’s AI robot lovers. For others, it’s an AI program that helps tell the future, an AI-powered app to offer customer service, or something else entirely.
ChatGPT, Claude, and other programs like it have given our world a full paradigm shift. It’s revolutionized everything from business to the way that we even perceive online messages. AI is not going to stop its growth, either.
While it can revolutionize a ton of things in our world, AI comes at a very high energy cost. Most of us have already heard about power plants straining under the demand for energy for AI. That’s already old news, thanks to the spike in energy costs.
There’s another cost that people aren’t really discussing: water.
AI requires drinkable, high-quality water in order to cool down the data centers and the systems that make it go. All those data centers can only use fresh, drinkable water that’s already starting to become hard to come by.
According to EESI, it’s a lot worse than you might imagine:
“Large data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons per day, equivalent to the water use of a town populated by 10,000 to 50,000 people. With larger and new AI-focused data centers, water consumption is increasing alongside energy usage and carbon emissions.”
While there are efforts to get chips cooled through alternate means, the stress on water consumption alone is a massive problem.
The demand for drinkable water is starting to become an even bigger issue with climate change.
Climate change is wild. In some areas, water tends to be hyperabundant as a result of flooding. Other areas are experiencing drought unlike anything they’ve ever seen before.
The new shift in climate is causing many natural weather patterns to stop in its tracks. In many parts of the world, including Salt Lake City Utah, water basins and aquifers can no longer replenish themselves at the level they once did.
It’s becoming a quiet crisis no one wants to discuss. I mean, how do you talk about a town being unable to hydrate its own people? Yet, it’s a crisis that’s starting to creep into many places throughout the planet — with some areas suffering more than others.
In most cases, the droughts are focused on a small portion of a country’s population. This means that the country in question can potentially help rehydrate their area by providing residents enough water to get by.
But what happens when it’s not just a city or county?
Right now, Iran is dealing with one of the most alarming droughts in the country’s history.
This has not been making the news much, but Iran is going through serious issues. Once home to lush wetlands and bird sanctuaries, the country is rapidly losing its ability to replenish watersheds, aquifers, and other sources of water.
Rivers, lakes, and even major dams are starting to shrink, with depletions going as high as 98 percent in some regions. Leaders are now debating relocating the nation’s capital, Tehran, in a bid to work around the water vulnerabilities.
For the past three years, climate change and growing demands for water challenged Iran’s infrastructure. It’s gotten to the point that politicians can no longer ignore the strain and Iran’s once-booming agricultural sector is beginning to fail.
This is not a minor emergency.
A drought of this kind could easily make the entire country collapse. After all, we can live without taxes or concrete or phones. No mammal, human or otherwise, can live for too long without water.
Humans can only live for about three days without water — and in some temperatures, that can actually be a stretch. Animals might have better chances, especially if they’re desert-friendly, but not by much.
Iran has a population of around 28 million people. The entire country is currently struggling with this drought, which means that 28 million people could potentially die of dehydration if a solution is not found.
Water conservation efforts are already underway, but efforts to keep up with globalized tech demands are making it a struggle. AI is a small drop in the proverbial bucket when it comes to water demand, yet with the way things are going, every drop quite literally matters.
Hydrating Iran is a movement that has to start now.
Iran is not going to be able to support 28 million people in the near future. In fact, it’s unlikely that Iran will be able to support its own wildlife in the near future. If left alone, this water crisis will turn a vast swath of land into a crater.
The water demands of various industries, be it from AI or agriculture, no longer matter that much. No, what is going on here could spell the end of a country and all the wildlife in it. Iran needs to find a way to restore its rivers, aquifers, and wells, like yesterday.
Minimizing water use and rationing water can help, but it may take outside assistance to improve Iran’s chances. This might be the first time in history that water becomes a focal point of a country’s survival — though it certainly won’t be the last.
As AI’s resource demands continue to skyrocket, one can only assume that governments are going to have to put the brakes on AI’s growth. After all, there’s only so much water on the planet.
Decisions have to be made, and you can’t exactly get a “repeat planet” or a a water substitute. Even the greediest politician realizes that people will riot without water. I just hope that they don’t delude themselves into thinking this isn’t the new status quo.
Lookin at you.
