Data centers needed for AI are driving up electricity costs to surrounding residents, they use ungodly amounts of water to cool the systems and dump that now hot water back into the ecosystem, causing ecosystem collapse or into the municipal wastewater process, overloading treatment plants, children are using it to do their homework, potentially harming their ability to critically read and write (this is still being studied, and most evidence is anecdotal or still in review).
Data centers needed for AI are driving up electricity costs to surrounding residents, they use ungodly amounts of water to cool the systems and dump that now hot water back into the ecosystem, causing ecosystem collapse or into the municipal wastewater process, overloading treatment plants, children are using it to do their homework, potentially harming their ability to critically read and write (this is still being studied, and most evidence is anecdotal or still in review).
Electrical and water usage - Penn State U
https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/ask-expert-are-data-centers-driving-my-electricity-bills
Other electrical effects of AI and water demand - DW
https://www.dw.com/en/the-hidden-environmental-cost-of-ai-data-centers/a-78789889
Deep dive into water usage by data centers - University of Georgia
https://fieldreport.caes.uga.edu/publications/TP121/how-data-centers-impact-surface-and-ground-waters/
Wowo interesting, describe to me how a closed loop cooling tower works.