Last month, a journalist Karen Hao posted Twitter thread in which she admitted that there was a significant error in her best-selling book AI Empire. Hao wrote that Google’s proposed data center in a city near Santiago, Chile, could require “more than a thousand times the amount of water used by the entire population” – a figure that, due to a confusion over units, appears to be off by a magnitude of 1,000.
In the thread, Hao thanked Andy Masley, head of Effective Altruism in Washington, for bringing the amendment to her attention. Masley has spent the last few months questioning some of the numbers and rhetoric popular in popular media about water consumption and artificial intelligence on his Substack. Masley’s main post titled “The AI water problem is fake” has been associated with other very popular writers in recent months, including: Matt Yglesias AND Noah Smith. (Hao said in her Twitter thread that she would work with her publisher to correct the errors; her publicist told me she was taking time off and couldn’t talk to me about this story.)
When I called him to talk more about artificial intelligence and water, Masley emphasized that he is not an expert, but “just a guy” interested in how the media deals with the topic and how it shapes the opinions of those around him.
“Sometimes I’ve mentioned that I’ve used ChatGPT at events and people have said, ‘Oh, that uses a lot of energy and water. How can you utilize that?'” he says. “I was a little surprised to hear people talk so gloomily about a little bit of water.”
As local and national opposition to data centers grows, so do concerns about their environmental impact. As of earlier this week, over 230 green groups sent a letter to Congress, warning that artificial intelligence and data centers “threaten the economic, environmental, climate and water security” of Americans.
The artificial intelligence industry has begun to struggle. In November, the co-chairs of the AI Infrastructure Coalition, a novel industry group, wrote an authorship and op-ed for Fox News, which touched on environmental issues. “Water utilize? Minimal and frequently recycled – less than US golf courses,” they wrote. One of the article’s authors, former Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema, is now advocating for a data center project in that state, which has resulted in local opposition, including due to concerns about water use. Coalition also forwarded with approval Masley’s post on the impact of artificial intelligence on energy prices. (Masley maintains a comprehensive description reservation on his Substack, refuting allegations that the industry pays him to share his opinions.)