It consumes the resource of “purified, available water” which is consumed as it is no longer purified or unavailable (if evaporated). The same way nothing ever “consumes” energy, it just makes it unusable.
kitnaht@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
In this world, we obey the law of thermodynamics.
groet@feddit.org 14 hours ago
Zikeji@programming.dev 15 hours ago
Yeah the article is disingenuous at best. There are many things wrong with generative AI, but this is just a lousy approach.
If I make a PC, put in a water cooling loop, and use it to run an LLM - sure, water is circulating, but that water isn’t just vanishing lol.
iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works 14 hours ago
My friend, you are naive at best if you think AI data centers are using closed loop water cooling. Look up evaporative cooling towers. It’s “consumed” in the sense that it is evaporated.
Zikeji@programming.dev 14 hours ago
I specifically avoided saying they did because I wasn’t knowledgeable on the topic. But I agree, I could equally be accused of being disingenuous by phrasing it in a way that could lead people to assume they use closed loops.
I did look those up, and while evaporation cooling isn’t the only method used, it also doesn’t evaporate all the water each pass, only a portion of it (granted “a portion” is all I found at a quick look, which isn’t actually useful).
I do agree though, the water usage is excessive, and when though that water only “changes forms”, it’s still removes it from a water source and only some of it may make its way back in.