I've never understood the water argument... yes, it takes a lot of water in the ...

N_Lens · 2026-09-11T11:02:23 1789124543

It’s not a good argument in my opinion, just something that’s spread because it’s easy to latch onto. The actual numbers on water usage aren’t a big deal.

That’s not to say that AI is all fine and dandy, I genuinely think frontier AI companies have deranged leadership.

alcomatt · 2026-09-11T10:55:34 1789124134

In some cases it does. Most of the DCs use open evaporators still. Keeps the costs down.

samvher · 2026-09-11T11:28:34 1789126114

Yes and many forms of electricity generation evaporate water as well

mapontosevenths · 2026-09-11T11:23:13 1789125793

Yes. The part I don't get is why do we care about that?

Earth is two thirds water, and it rains. The water I drank this morning is million of years old. It will be around for millions more.

So, they pump some water out of the earth and it evaporates... It will come back down, and we aren't running out anytime soon.

Why do we care? Are they building these things in deserts? If so that's the problem. They should use closed loops if they want to build in the desert.

toasty228 · 2026-09-11T11:49:05 1789127345

Ah ok, then drought aren't a problem I guess? Guess what happens when you pump ground water faster than rain water replenishes it? Guess what climate change is disturbing?

This your your typical HN take, aka "I thought about a random problem I barely understand for 12 seconds and I think I figured it out better than domain experts"

mapontosevenths · 2026-09-11T12:04:11 1789128251

Fully two thirds of earths inhabitants live near large bodies of water. It's not a problem for most of us.

The 1/3rd that choose to live in arid places where droughts are a concern should probably just pass laws that require closed loop cooling.

joenada · 2026-09-11T11:30:05 1789126205

This is satirical, right? They use fresh water, which is a tiny, tiny % of all water on earth.

mindwok · 2026-09-11T11:43:15 1789126995

Why does this matter? It remains fresh when its evaporated until it falls into the ocean, and then gets evaporated from there back into fresh.

voidUpdate · 2026-09-11T11:33:14 1789126394

2.5 to 3% according to google... Small but not tiny tiny

mapontosevenths · 2026-09-11T12:09:43 1789128583

Three percent of two thirds of the entire planet is enormous. We aren't running out, and never will.

Some people just live in places that aren't suitable for human life and survive only through technology. Those places need to have different laws about water.

For example, I shouldn't be forced to use a low flow showerhead when I'm 100 miles from 1.3 quadrillion gallons of fresh water. If you aren't next door to lake Michigan then maybe you should be.

joenada · 2026-09-11T11:37:56 1789126676

That's fresh water in general. Most of it is frozen. The amount you can actually use is a sliver.

scotty79 · 2026-09-11T11:27:02 1789126022

It's about evaporative cooling. Read about how cooling towers work in nuclear and coal plants. The principle is the same for the data centers, but it the wasteheat to get rid of comes from computation.

They obviously shouldn't be doing it like that, but since clean water is cheap and business in absence of reason optimizes for lowest costs that's exactly what they did.