New Interlink: January 2025 - Expect stories from the world of AVK 🌍

Green transition, new technology, and water

It is well-known that water is important for a wide range of global challenges, but now a new player has entered the game – AI

Did you know that one question to ChatGPT can be up to 50 times worse for the environment than asking Google?

American researcher and professor Kate Crawford from USC Annenberg (University of South Carolina, USA) has investigated water consumption in connection with the use of artificial intelligence, specifically ChatGPT.

In a radio podcast about AI, Kate Crawford elaborates on her considerations:

“Every time you ask a question to ChatGPT, it leaves a climate footprint due to the large amount of water consumption. In fact, several billion litres of water are used per year,” says Kate Crawford in the interview, and continues: “There is a misconception that artificial intelligence is an intangible technology that is just algorithms in a cloud. In reality, it is enormously energy and water intensive – and especially generative AI like ChatGPT.”

In her research, Kate Crawford has found that ChatGPT's water consumption is so large that it is better to search traditionally on Google than to ask ChatGPT about something. So, for a simple question like “What is the distance to the moon?” the difference between ChatGPT and Google is that ChatGPT uses up to 50 times more water than Google. Kate Crawford previously told the newspaper El Pais that it costs a large bottle of water per prompt or question asked to ChatGPT.

According to the AP, Microsoft has stated that their water consumption increased by 34% from 2021 to 2022 – corresponding to a total of over 6.4 billion litres of water. This happened around the same time that ChatGPT-4 was launched. The water is used as cooling water for the huge servers that host the software behind ChatGPT and that generate answers to the questions asked. At a data centre in the state of Iowa, USA, there is a supercomputer used in connection with ChatGPT, which must be cooled with water to prevent overheating.

But it is not only the use of ChatGPT that has a major impact on our water resources. The green transition has revealed new challenges that can have major consequences for our water. Mining of new minerals such as lithium, cobalt, graphite, and rare earths, which are used in the manufacture of computers and batteries for electric cars, is often associated with pegmatite (a coarse-grained igneous rock) which can have a high volume of radioactive content and be associated with radon and arsenic, which, in connection with the mining itself, can contaminate groundwater.

The green transition is good for both the climate and nature, and new and modern technologies help improve society, but this does not happen without affecting other areas, such as water.

In this issue you can read about many different projects, both where our products have helped make a difference, but also about product optimisation and new initiatives.

Enjoy reading.