The environmental toll of the artificial intelligence boom continues to mount as tech companies use ever more power to run their data centers and enormous amounts of water for cooling. A new investigation by U.N. scientists warns that AI’s water use in 2030 will match the needs of 1.3 billion people, while its power use will be triple that of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria combined — countries with a total population of 650 million.
“Most people understand AI as a digital technology, as a virtual thing, as something that is in the clouds,” says Iranian environmental scientist Kaveh Madani, director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health. “What we tried to do in this report was to remind people that there’s some physics to all of this.”
Trump Claims “Great Settlement” Has Been Reached to End War, But Iran Says Nothing Has Been Finalized, India Condemns Deadly U.S. Strikes on Boats After 3 Sailors Killed Near Oman, Musk Poised to Become World’s First Trillionaire as SpaceX Goes Public, Trump Taps Jay Clayton to Head National Intelligence After Bipartisan Opposition to Bill Pulte, Detained Palestinian Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya Appears in Israeli Court with Signs of Torture, Family Says, U.S. Issues New Sanctions on Cuba’s Oil & Gas Company, Two Top U.K. Military Officials Resign in Row with Starmer over Military Spending, “Albania Is Not For Sale”: Protests Mount over Proposed Jared Kushner Luxury Development, “Dignity Has No Passport”: Pope Leo Visits Canary Island to Show Solidarity with Migrants, Detained Women Join Hunger and Labor Strike at Delaney Hall ICE Jail in NJ, Report: State Dept. Opens Probe of Iranian-Born Trita Parsi, Critic of Trump’s War, Protests Held as World Cup Opens in Mexico, Landlord Waives Back Rent for Tenants After Being Targeted by NYC Mayor Mamdani
Vilès Dorsainvil has thought a lot about desperation recently. Specifically, what desperation forces people to do, and the tragedy it seems to attract. As a Haitian immigrant and the executive director of the Haitian Support Center in Springfield, Ohio, he has seen a desperate community seeking stability in the United States, only to find that […]