ChatGPT ‘drinks’ half a litre of water for every 20 prompts

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https://www.neowin.net/news/chatgpt-drinks-half-a-litre-of-water-for-every-20-prompts/

According to researcher Shaolei Ren from the University of California, ChatGPT and similar LLMs use up to 500 millilitres of water (17 oz) for every 20 to 50 prompts or questions users ask. In a paper published on Arxiv earlier this year, the researcher pointed out that 500 ml might not seem like much but with the combined use of ChatGPT by users globally, the water usage is enormous…

“‘It’s fair to say the majority of the [water] growth [in Microsoft’s 2022 environmental report] is due to AI. Its heavy investment in generative AI and partnership with OpenAI. Most people are not aware of the resource usage underlying ChatGPT. If you’re not aware of the resource usage, then there’s no way that we can help conserve the resources.’”..

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Some context from the AP News article Artificial intelligence technology behind ChatGPT was built in Iowa — with a lot of water:

“…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….Microsoft disclosed that its global water consumption spiked 34% from 2021 to 2022 (to nearly 1.7 billion gallons, or more than 2,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools), a sharp increase compared to previous years that outside researchers tie to its AI research.”

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Ok, someone please explain how water used to cool a computer is actually “used up”? Water will absorb the heat from the computer and either become just hot water or steam. If it’s in a closed loop system steam can run a turbine to generate electricity. Hot water can be used to heat buildings. Or as in a geothermal system be cooled down by the ambient temperature of the ground to match the temp. of the river water and be returned to the river as sterilized fresh water.

Ok, I’ve donned my asbestos have at it.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
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