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As weeks go by, the scale of the appalling devastation caused by the wildfires in Los Angeles becomes clearer. The fires have not been completely extinguished yet, but the search for answers to explain their origin is underway. The shortages fueled partisan finger-pointing over blame. No matter how this search ends, it is a fact that water became scarce when it was most needed. Southern California, often the location of wildfires, is also a hub for the A.I. boom. The region has seen a surge in A.I. data centers energy consumption, resulting in immense strain on the state’s resources¹. So, is it possible to blame, even partially, the A.I. industry for the lack of water supply to fight the fire’? Let’s see.

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Big tech companies have indeed built or leased a lot of data centers - the engine rooms for AI. They have poured an estimated $105 billion during 2023 into these vast, power-hungry facilities. That spending spree increased the electricity demand and raised environmental concerns because those data centers are power-hungry: a query to ChatGPT requires nearly 10 times as much electricity as a regular Google search, according to a recent estimate²- it has been stated that ChatGPT responds to 195 million requests per day³. Thus, as the A.I. revolution “gathers steam”, Goldman Sachs estimates that data center power demand will grow 160% by 2030⁴, It is interesting to mention that by 2028 A.I. could represent about 19% of that data center power demand ⁵. Consequently, energy consumption by data centers worldwide will at least double over the next few years. In the USA, after some years of a decrease in the electricity demand until 2023, the expansion of the data center sector is expected to account for more than one-third of additional demand through 2026⁶.

Thus, the impact of the data center's growing expansion upon the increase of the electricity demand can not be overlooked, “this surge in data center electricity demand, however, should be understood in the context of the much larger electricity demand that is expected to occur over the next few decades from a combination of electric vehicle adoption, onshoring of manufacturing, hydrogen utilization, and the electrification of industry and buildings”⁷. However, tracking water usage for data centers sometimes is

challenging due to insufficient reporting and transparency. AI model cards include information about the carbon footprint related to energy consumption during model training but generally provide little to no information about water usage⁸.

All and all, A.I. benefits are huge. However, its overuse could lead to energy overspending - nothing new, it is like keeping all of your home´s lights turned on when you leave it. Moreover, there are many water-saving techniques data centers are deploying, including immersion cooling (submerging servers in liquid), free cooling (using outside air in colder climates), direct-to-chip cooling, and more⁹.

Moreover, there are some ways data centers can limit water consumptionas well, as collecting and analyzing water usage data to reveal water use, as big companies already do; finding ways to reuse water; experimenting with new water management techniques; building new facilities in colder climates - it may particularly apply to warm, windy and dry Southern California weather; replacing legacy systems. In addition, hardware efficiency improvements, and innovations in model architectures and algorithms could help to mitigate or even reduce AI-related electricity consumption in the long term.

Conclusion: A.I. tools can not be blamed for the fire disaster. They neither originated it nor were responsible for the eventual lack of water. Firefighters ran out of water because the system wasn't built to pump out that much water over a sustained period - not because it was misappropriated by data centers¹⁰. There is no evidence to come to a different conclusion. But the appalling drama has called attention to AI's environmental impact. Let’s address it aiming to advance AI’s environmental sustainability and ensure its positive net contribution to mitigating climate change ¹¹

https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2025/01/10/ai-data-centers-face-scrutiny-for-water-and-energy-use-as-la-LA wildfires and AI - Harper Macleod LLPfires-rage-ee-00197434

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/26/climate/ai-planet-climate-change.html?searchResultPosition=6

https://www.informationweek.com/it-infrastructure/la-wildfires-raise-burning-questions-about-ai-s-data-center-water-drain

https://mashable.com/article/chatgpt-water-los-angeles-fires

https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatacenter/tip/How-to-manage-data-center-water-usage-sustainably

https://cee.illinois.edu/news/AIs-Challenging-Waters#:~:text=In%20contrast%2C%20smaller%20data%20centers,to%20that%20of%204200%20persons.

https://www.thecut.com/article/is-chatgpt-ai-water-use-part-of-what-caused-the-wildfires.html

AI data centers face scrutiny for water, energy use as LA fires rage

Sacramento lawmakers have penned several bills aiming to restrict the resource-hungry technology.

BY:

TYLER KATZENBERGER

| 01/10/2025 06:34 AM EST

https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eenews/2025/01/10/ai-data-centers-face-scrutiny-for-water-and-energy-use-as-la-fires-rage-ee-00197434

ENERGYWIRE | SACRAMENTO, California — Three state lawmakers introduced bills this week aimed at curbing the amounts of electricity and water used to power artificial intelligence and data processing centers amid renewed scrutiny over the state’s water management.

Two bills aim to nudge data centers toward sustainable electricity and water use, while two others would hold the facilities to new energy accountability and transparency rules.

Freshwater availability, a perennial hot topic in California, is back in the spotlight this week after reports that some high-elevation hydrants ran dry as fire crews raced to prevent catastrophic blazes from torching Los Angeles-area homes.

The disaster has magnified claims — some of which are misleading or oversimplified — among high-profile politicians like President-elect Donald Trump that California inefficiently manages its water system.

“This is not a new issue, and it's not one that's been created because of the fire. It’s one that is exacerbated by it, and I am concerned,” state Sen. Steve Padilla, a Democrat from Chula Vista in Southern California, told POLITICO after presenting one of the bills.

Padilla on Wednesday introduced S.B. 58, which would grant a tax exemption to data centers that meet energy, water sustainability and jobs targets set by the state. The targets include using at least 70 percent carbon-free energy to power a data center; adopting water recycling systems; and creating at least 20 jobs in the county where a facility is located.

Another bill, introduced Tuesday by Assemblymember Diane Papan as A.B. 93, sets the stage for legislation aimed at ensuring AI tools and other new technology are water and energy efficient.

“Water’s a limited resource,” the San Mateo Democrat told POLITICO. “I’m trying to make it so we are prepared and ahead of the curve as we pursue new technology.”

Two other bills introduced this week deal with data center power usage. S.B. 57 from Padilla proposes a new electric rate structure for the centers to prevent residential customers from paying more to offset increased energy demand for data processing.

A.B. 222 from Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan includes additional ratepayer protections and would require facilities that power high-level AI models to publicly disclose energy use data.

“This bill safeguards consumers while aligning innovation with our state’s clean energy goals,” the Bay Area Democrat told POLITICO.

Data centers guzzle fresh water at intensive rates to cool massive servers that power AI and other advanced computing tools. Google reported in July that its data centers alone consumed 6.1 billion gallons of water in 2023.

Water usage is forecast to increase as the tech sector races to implement AI. A 2023 study from researchers at the University of California, Riverside, and the University of Texas, Austin, estimates global AI demand for water could exceed that of some European nations by 2027.

All four bills are likely to be heard in legislative committees in the coming months, giving the tech companies that own data centers and AI models a chance to weigh in.

Papan told POLITICO she expects to release the full text for her bill within the next few weeks.

1. “Tech vs. Nature: The Complex Role of AI in Wildfire Control” by Ali Azhar, see https://www.aiwire.net/2025/01/14/tech-vs-nature-the-complex-role-of-ai-in-wildfire-control/
2. “Will A.I. Ruin the Planet or Save the Planet?” By Steve Lohr, see https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/26/climate/ai-planet-climate-change.html?searchResultPosition=6
3. “The growing energy footprint of artificial intelligence”, by Alex de Vrie, see https://www.cell.com/joule/fulltext/S2542-4351(23)00365-3
4. Goldman Sachs “AI is poised to drive 160% increase in data center power demand”, see https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/AI-poised-to-drive-160-increase-in-power-demand
5. Goldman Sachs “AI is poised to drive 160% increase in data center power demand”, see https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/AI-poised-to-drive-160-increase-in-power-demand
6. International Energy Agency, 2024 “Executive summary”, see: https://www.iea.org/reports/electricity-2024/executive-summary
7. “2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report”, US Department of Energy, Berkeley Lab, Energy Analysis & Environmental Impacts Division- LBNL-2001637.
8. The University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, The Grainger College of Engineering Civil & Environmental Engineering, “AI's Challenging Waters” by Ana Pinheiro Privette, see https://cee.illinois.edu/news/AIs-Challenging-Waters#:~:text=In%20contrast%2C%20smaller%20data%20centers,to%20that%20of%204200%20persons.
9. “LA Wildfires Raise Burning Questions About AI’s Data Center Water Drain”, by Shane Snider, see https://www.informationweek.com/it-infrastructure/la-wildfires-raise-burning-questions-about-ai-s-data-center-water-drain
10. “ChatGPT isn't responsible for the Los Angeles fires, but it does use a crazy amount of water”, by Cecily Mauran. See https://mashable.com/article/chatgpt-water-los-angeles-fires
11. Harvard Business review, “The Uneven Distribution of AI’s Environmental Impacts” by Shaolei Ren and Adam Wierman. See:https://hbr.org/2024/07/the-uneven-distribution-of-ais-environmental-impacts