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Imagine not being able to shower, because AI slop generator machines need that water!

⁨1540⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨aboringdystopia@lemmy.world⁩

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/1602a8f3-ab4f-4d7c-8727-b24409cf3e6c.jpeg

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Comments

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  • ansiz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    I don’t get the news about these data centers guzzling water, where is the water going? If it’s for cooling, but that doesn’t destroy the water…

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    • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Evaporative cooling.

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      • Lord743@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Can’t they recycle it.

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    • Canonical_Warlock@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      They use adiabatic gas coolers on their refrigeration systems. Basically there is a perpetually wet piece of media that air runs through before it gets to the refrigeration coils. By running through that wet media you precool the air basically down to the current dewpoint by evaporating water and therefore you’re cooling the refrigeration coils with colder air which leads to more efficient opperation and reduces the size of the gas coolers required. From what I’ve seen a lot of these datacenters are also switching to CO2 based refirgeration systems which are generally better except the low critical temp of CO2 mean that their efficiency starts to drop quickly once the ambient temp gets much above 80F. Using adiabatic coolers mostly removes that shortfall.

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  • Snowclone@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Is cooling water not reusable? Shouldn’t these be closed systems?

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    • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Apparently closed loop systems are not good enough for these kinds of applications, and often instead use evaporative. Which kind of logical, since they’re not running a single factory overclocked GPU with a top of the line desktop CPU, but a cluster of factory overclocked GPUs with a server CPU.

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      • dgriffith@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Apparently closed loop systems are not good cheap enough

        There I fixed that for you.

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      • MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        So they build the computing centers in hot areas with water scarcity and make the air hot-humid?

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  • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    If you live in Texas, leave.

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    • Texas_Hangover@lemmy.radio ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      I wish… We get over a thousand new residents a day. It’s awful.

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  • 1984@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Nice to see humanity has its priorities straight as usual… :)

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  • SonOfAntenora@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    I’m not joking when i say that not using ai is mostly improving my reasoning. Probably, each time I used it, i had to subconsciously offset some thinking to that brainless machine. I’m fine the way I am, i know it’s being propped up as some ultimate solution but my creative output improved too.

    We’re probably offsetting some thinking and memorisation to a computer with a complete lack of experience of the real world, and it’s somehow being presented as acceptable. I do n’t think it’s fine.

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  • nullroot@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Could someone explain to me how these data centers use up water? Like it’s it evaporating? What happens to the water? I get the water consumption is very high but is the problem we’re removing it from places that don’t refill or does into the environment mean it’s not wastewater? Please someone help me understand.

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    • RunawayFixer@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Generating power with coal/nuclear/hydro uses water, and since the LLM data centers use power that would otherwise not have been generated, this is one of the ways that they use up water.

      For cooling many (most?) data centers use evaporative cooling. That evaporated water could be captured again with a heat pump (reducing the wasted water + recuperating heat for other uses), but it’s Texas, so it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if the data centers have no intensive to be less wasteful.

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      • nullroot@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        That is super helpful, thank you.

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      • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Generating power with coal/nuclear/hydro uses water, and since the LLM data centers use power that would otherwise not have been generated, this is one of the ways that they use up water.

        I doubt those are constantly consuming large amounts of water. hydro just lets it through, and nuclear has chained closed loop systems, and they also let through some after the last loop

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    • frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      They use evaporative cooling in the name of being “green”. Saves a lot of energy, but at the cost of water use.

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      • Auth@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Doesnt this mean the water will come back when it rains? Its not being polluted and rendered unusable is it?

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  • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    No wonder the government don’t want anymore report on climate change.

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  • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Imagine not having obese AI fart videos because you want a shower?

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  • maniajack@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Here’s the report this came from austinchronicle.com/…/texas-is-still-in-drought-a…

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    • forkDestroyer@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Can’t wait for the water wars to start. :-/

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  • LordWiggle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Yes that’s what Americans voted for.

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  • FosterMolasses@leminal.space ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Hilarious, hilarious. Hilarious.

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  • eatham@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    What does a data center need that much water for?

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    • 9point6@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      To compensate for the fact that Texas is a stupid place to build something that needs a lot of cooling

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    • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Cooling. Even closed loops evaporate a lot.

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      • SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Closed loops evaporate stuff all. This is 100% from evaporative cooling towers.

        If they were using DX or air-to-water chillers the water usage would be negligible. Like how often you top up the radiator in your car.

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  • Gammelfisch@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    LOL! The Red Run Deregulated Texas Oblast does not surprise me with this kind of shit. If it dries up, the fucking red voters can stay and find the fuck out.

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  • MissJinx@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    don’t be selfishn, Microsoft AI will be used by the whole world and only few people will need this water to shower.

    S/ hahahha

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  • MNByChoice@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Stinky teens need shirts that point the blame at Microsoft. Get ripe and hang out with old people.

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  • Harbinger01173430@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Can’t they just use seawater or use air cooling?

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    • MNByChoice@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      A lot of the need is due to the heat density of the GPUs used for GenAI. Could they build less densely? Yes, and they likely already are but need to go further. I have seen data centers with racks less than half (I think it was closer to one quarter) populated for energy density issues.

      Could they use sea water? Sea water causes more corrosion. (I am uncertain if this data center is close to the ocean.)

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      • Harbinger01173430@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Can’t they just make sub 75w GPUs that require basic cooling?

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  • null@lemmy.nullspace.lol ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    So assuming the datacenter uses the water for cooling, what happens to the water? Does it just get released as steam?

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    • excral@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Of course it would be possible to capture and condensate the steam but that equipment would cost money. If just using more water is cheap and unregulated there is no incentive not to do just so.

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    • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      It often just evaporates, since they’re using evaporative cooling.

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  • cantstopthesignal@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    I just told Chat GPT to implement my code fully and now you can’t shower. Suck it!

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  • DivineDev@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    So genuine question, how is a datacenter needing water equivalent to showering? When people shower, the water gets dirty and needs to be cleaned. When water is used to cool servers, it gets warm but that should not be a problem, it doesn't need to go through a water treatment facility afterwards (?)

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    • WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      They use potable water and they use evaporative cooling.

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    • davad@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      I have no idea what the infrastructure setup is like for cooling that data center, but one way of water cooling is to take in cool water and dump the hot water. If you do this in your home, it’s an “open loop geothermal heat pump.” You pull in water from a well, heat or cool the water with your AC heat exchanger, then pump it back into the ground or into the sewer.

      www.geojerry.com/aboutopenloop.html

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    • sugarfoot00@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      The water may be treated with anticorrosives.

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  • fox2263@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Newer aerated shower heads help with that 👀

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