Part 5/11:
Artificial intelligence's ravenous energy needs lead to severe environmental consequences. Cooling data centers, which require approximately 7,100 liters of water for each megawatt hour of power consumed, further compounding the problem. Recent figures from Google's sustainability report revealed their data centers consumed 6.1 billion gallons of water in 2023—a staggering increase compared to previous years—indicating the profound cost of maintaining AI infrastructure in water-stressed areas.