Vegan

Yes but there is no reason that power for example has to be coming from fossil fuels burned on-site, emitting at some of the highest intensities on the planet. AI doesn't care where the electricity comes from. There is obviously rampant corruption and abdication of government responsibility here, and that's not going to go away if AI magically disappears.

All industry, indeed all work of any kind necessarily generates waste heat. Every factory, office, and hen house has to export waste heat or it cooks itself. AI is not out of line with what people accept elsewhere when it comes to wasting water for industry, for leisure, for their lawns, and dozens of other frivolous applications. The scale of the water problem is only an issue on an extremely local scope, where a locally finite water supply is being consumed to the detriment of other local water users. I guess those people should have paid the bribes which are now apparently de rigueur.

I really feel like this water angle is being promoted by foreign interests who see AI as an arms race and want to retard American corporations as much as possible. It doesn't make any goddamn sense when you pick it apart and place it in context.