I've been seeing a lot of comments on different platforms like YouTube and TikTok saying that "AI wastes water" and "AI doesn't waste water, the water cycle makes it usable again", which is why I'm here to talk about my stance on AI. For starters, I don't like AI. It uses up a lot of water that we need, and takes away creativity by taking others' work and reusing it, regardless of whether it is free use or not. The problem I have is that people describe it's usage of water incorrectly. When some older AI models use water, it does evaporate. But a few things people need to understand is that: 1. Not all AI models evaporate the water they use. This factor, however, doesn't apply to all AI models. Not all AI's are the same. 2. Most of the water AI uses isn't contaminated in any way. When most water is evaporated, the contaminants aren't evaporated with it and usually stay where they are. 3. In the case that the water is contaminated from precipitation, the water is distilled. If you don't know, distilled water is produced by boiling water into a gas and then condensing it back into a liquid, removing any impurities. Distillation works by leveraging the difference in boiling points between water and contaminants. The heating of the water causes the water to reach its boiling point, before being directed to a cooling chamber for it to condense. 4. Some data centers use a closed-loop system to run their models. They take the heated water that AI has already used and puts it in a central cooling station, removing all the heat from the water. Some of the water is lost to evaporation, though, and the water will eventually have to be replenished. Still, the system can be repeated hundreds of times until the water needs to be replaced. 5. Just because closed-loop systems exist doesn't mean that the cost of running AI is non-existent. The water AI uses raises living costs. Water bills go up because the local water supplies that people use are now being used to power AI data centers across the U.S., let alone the way power bills are surging because of all the electricity that's required to run those hefty models. In conclusion, before you make a statement about AI, I highly reccomend you consider both sides of the AI argument to fully understand what's going on. It's important to stay informed about things going on across the globe.
Thanks for reading, folks. Citations (MLA9): “Does Ai Use a Lot of Water? The Real Numbers (2026).” Tech Journal, techjournal.org/does-ai-use-water-data-centers. Accessed 5 Sept. 2026. Craske, Ben. “How Closed-Loop Cooling Is Reshaping Data Centre Design.” Data Centre Magazine, Bizclik Media Ltd, 20 Feb. 2026, datacentremagazine.com/news/how-closed-loop-cooling-is-reshaping-data-centre-design.
