NEW: Big Tech claims AI data centers don’t use much water. But data centers typically report the water used inside the facilities — we found them indirectly consuming 10x that amount. We went to the drought-stricken West, where farmers now have to fight AI oligarchs for water.

These farmers? The ones growing a feed crop in the DESERT?

terrible reporting and complete lack of logical comparisons as usual. “that’s more than double all the bottled water in a year”. okay??? now tell your viewers how their eating of one is months worth of AI usage. you guys should be ashamed. you are not trying to properly educate

We looked into OpenAI, Oracle, and Meta data centers. OpenAI and Oracle don't report indriect water use. Meta does, and the indirect figures are 24x the direct water use numbers. Video by: Dan Lieberman and Leslie Atkins

Farmers are part of the problem. They operate biological factories, and just like that data center they shouldn't be doing it in the desert!

dawg this is literally in your own video

You are lying and making everyone dumber.

Notice you interviewed the actually authority on this who does the actual measurements, and then didn't address his point at all just brushed past it and back to interviewing MAGA farmers who believe whatever the algorithm tells them as though they're the real experts.

lmao

Probably shouldn’t be letting the farmers use up all the water to grow for extraordinarily water intensive crops for personal gain while destroying our ecosystems and collective resources either

How do you not realize how hypocritical this is. The first farmer you talked to is literally flooding his field!!! A huge portion of that is gonna evaporate!!

Lol did the alfalfa and almos farmers put you up this? The most water wasting type of land use that there is?

The claim that AI data centers use a lot of water is simply a lie. It's not a slight stretching of the truth, it's not a topic where experts differ, it's just a plain old lie.

Mr.Pecan is a whatabouter. We don’t need pecans or data centers lol. They’re both a net negative

Data centers require water to fill their tanks and cooling pipes, but recycle it after that. You know this. They use water to flush toilets, water the grass outside, and mop the break room floor. You're just fear mongering.

Fuck those farmers

Bro at least ask the fucking pecan farmer who's flooding his fields how much water he's using a year

“well the water company said that data centers don’t account for a significant portion of water consumption, but one random farmer said nuh-uh, so really who’s to say”

It’s a good thing if this puts the farmers out of business, actually.

Sure, now compare the use of water by AI facilities to the water used by country club golf courses, run it against the # of people who benefit, & bring the argument back. Sure they use a shit ton of water, but don’t be fooled that they are the worst offenders.

Here's a letter Rod D. Martin @RodDMartin wrote in response to complaint letters about data centers:

There are legitimate concerns about data centers (special tax breaks, air pollution from new gas plants, etc.). Water use isn’t one. Here are Lawrence Berkeley’s 2023 numbers, their 4x scenario, and the CA Almond industry. This kind of nonsense detracts from the credible concerns

You guys are so retarded it's painful.

I’ve been in manufacturing for 30 years in skilled trades and if companies were dumping water like you are reporting they would not be in business. Modern chiller systems are closed loop or air chilled using less than an average auto manufacturing facility. No tax abatements

So you are losing the cooling argument, now you are talking about the power generation usage?

Dairy, animal ag is not sustainable. Also they have some dumb laws in I think Nevada that are 100 years old that basically let you keep rights to water only if you use that quantity. It's dumb. It benefits the largest handful of farms

There's an excellent argument that the farmers shouldn't be there, yes. The fact that they are has no bearing on data centers.

This is misleading framing. Please interview Andy Masley to hear the other side of this debate:

I almost never see @moreperfectUS posts anymore, wonder why that is??? I generally have to go looking for them or see them when someone else links them.

Thanks for debunking your own garbage arguments.

Sorry buddy we’re building more data centers so you can have the digital infrastructure to pump out more content about data centers Ai, cloud and the general digital age we live in depend on these data centers as they have for decades now You will not stop humanities progress

Isn’t the indirect water consumption almost entirely based on the type of power plant and cooling technology that plant relies on to serve the data center?