“New Form of Imperialism”: Renowned U.N. Scientist on AI Boom’s Huge Water, Carbon & Land Footprint (opens in new tab)

The environmental toll of the artificial intelligence boom continues to mount as tech companies use ever more power to run their data centers and use 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...