AI, water consumption, and the trillion-radish problem

Cornell University researchers estimate that by 2027, AI's annual water withdrawal could exceed 6 billion cubic meters, roughly equal to New Zealand's total annual water use, but still far below agricultural water use. A report released by Mistral AI in July said that 91% of its supply chain's water use comes from model training and inference, and generating one page of text consumes about as much water as growing one small pink radish. Bloomberg estimates that since 2022, about two-thirds of new or under-construction data centers in the United States are located in high water stress areas.