As they race to capitalize on a craze for generative AI, leading tech developers including Microsoft, OpenAI and Google have acknowledged that growing demand for their AI tools carries hefty costs, from expensive semiconductors to an increase in water consumption.

But one thing Microsoft-backed OpenAI needed for its technology was plenty of water, pulled from the watershed of the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers in central Iowa to cool a powerful supercomputer as it helped teach its AI systems how to mimic human writing.

As they race to capitalize on a craze for generative AI, leading tech developers including Microsoft, OpenAI and Google have acknowledged that growing demand for their AI tools carries hefty costs, from expensive semiconductors to an increase in water consumption.

But they’re often secretive about the specifics. Few people in Iowa knew about its status as a birthplace of OpenAI’s most advanced large language model, GPT-4, before a top Microsoft executive said in a speech it “was literally made next to cornfields west of Des Moines.”

  • @[email protected]OP
    4•1 year ago

    MS’ reports make a distinction between how much water was withdrawn from third-party systems (often municipal sources) and how much was consumed … meaning not all the water withdrawn was returned to the source.

      • @Aliendelarge
        3•1 year ago

        If this was potatbpe water from municple sources, it may well include things like drinking water, toilets, etc or it could have been sent out of a sprinkler or evaporative coolers.

        • @[email protected]OP
          2•1 year ago

          According to page 6 of this PDF fact sheet MS uses third party sources, meaning municipal water systems, withdrawing 10,665 megaliters and discharging 4307 megaliters.

          1 megaliter = 1,000,000 liters 1,000,000 liters = 219,969.3 gallons

          • @ThekingoflordaMA
            0•1 year ago

            Yea I understood that, was just curious what happened with the water that wasn’t discharged

      • @[email protected]
        2•1 year ago

        Presumably it evaporates and returns to the water cycle? I don’t know, but it’s not like growing tomatoes and exporting the water within them. That water is staying local. But that doesn’t mean it returns to where it’s needed, when it’s needed. They’re putting a strain on the local water supply (flow) not necessarily the long-term stock.

        In 2022, a document from the West Des Moines Water Works said it and the city government “will only consider future data center projects” from Microsoft if those projects can “demonstrate and implement technology to significantly reduce peak water usage from the current levels” to preserve the water supply for residential and other commercial needs.

        They’re not doing that for fun.

        • @ThekingoflordaMA
          1•1 year ago

          Interesting, thank you for sharing. I assume it get’s put back into the water cycle, and it would require power to turn it into drinking water again.