Amazon has expanded an initiative to use reclaimed water to cool its artificial intelligence data centers instead of fresh drinking water, freeing up this limited resource for use in the communities surrounding its facilities, ESG Dive reported.
The generative AI boom has had a dramatic impact on the use of water and power in the United States and worldwide.
AI guzzles both — the electricity to operate the power doing all that computing and the water to cool down the processors. Generative AI requires more computing power than a simple search query or a similar computer function, so the demand for power and water has ballooned. That has bumped up the cost of these utilities, leaving many worried about water shortages, not to mention the environmental cost.
Amazon is beginning to take steps to curb that outsized impact with a water recycling program, which recirculates used water that is no longer drinkable but is still usable for cooling.
What began at select California and Virginia locations will expand to 120 facilities across those states as well as Georgia and Mississippi by 2030. The aim is to save more than 530 million gallons of drinking water and become "water positive," per ESG Dive, providing more fresh drinking water to the community than it takes from it.
"Water is a very local resource, and it needs to be managed as such," said Brandon Oyer, Amazon Web Services America's head of energy and water, at a June 5 panel, per ESG Dive. "When we go and build and invest in these communities, we know that we're going to be there for 10-20 years. So, we want to do the right thing."
Oyer also revealed that Amazon is looking at other ways to supplement its water needs, like rainwater recapture.
While it does not address all the issues with Amazon's oversized environmental impact, the program is a step toward mitigating one of the more obvious problems that has developed recently with the rise of new computing technology.
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