How could Artificial Intelligence become dangerous?

[kenmbz]

So anyone else here AI data centers use a lot of water for cooling why are they continually being built in arid, semi arid, and drought prone areas near population centers where people that need water, are located?

How could Artificial Intelligence become dangerous?

News release today about hackers using AI (Claude) to probe and identify corporations with weak cyber security, then used Claude again to hack and steal data, and then used AI again to review the stolen data for high profit information...either by holding the data ransom, or using the data for...

www.tractorbynet.com

Does not matter whether the area has water or not, there won't be enough supply to meet demand.

 

[MossRoad]

So anyone else here AI data centers use a lot of water for cooling why are they continually being built in arid, semi arid, and drought prone areas near population centers where people that need water, are located?

Yeah, that's the rumor. However, a guy from a data center that's being built here just yesterday said that while they have a permit to pull up to X million gallons a day, 98% of the time they aren't pulling any water at all. He said the data center will use less water per year than the irrigated corn farm it replaced.

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah, that's the rumor. However, a guy from a data center that's being built here just yesterday said that while they have a permit to pull up to X million gallons a day, 98% of the time they aren't pulling any water at all. He said the data center will use less water per year than the irrigated corn farm it replaced.

Here's the story...

Only on 22: Amazon leader answers WSBT's questions surrounding incoming data center

WSBT 22 went straight to the source to get answers to your questions surrounding the Amazon Data Center near New Carlisle.Some of the 30 buildings that will be

wsbt.com

"In our operations in New Carlisle, we don’t expect to withdraw, or use water more than 2% of the year of our operations. So while that is an instantaneous rate, that’s the permitted limit that we could use to run our operations. It is not indicative of what we expect to use year round. Most of the year, 98% of the year, we are not using water, and we are just simply cooling the data center by running air across the server,” says Oyer.

The interview...

 

[kenmbz]

Drive by any newer power station and watch the cooling towers.
Lots of water, huge amounts.

 

[EscapedSuburbia]

Here's the story...

Only on 22: Amazon leader answers WSBT's questions surrounding incoming data center

WSBT 22 went straight to the source to get answers to your questions surrounding the Amazon Data Center near New Carlisle.Some of the 30 buildings that will be

wsbt.com

"In our operations in New Carlisle, we don’t expect to withdraw, or use water more than 2% of the year of our operations. So while that is an instantaneous rate, that’s the permitted limit that we could use to run our operations. It is not indicative of what we expect to use year round. Most of the year, 98% of the year, we are not using water, and we are just simply cooling the data center by running air across the server,” says Oyer.

Rather than what they expect or promise, I'd like to know how much water existing data centers are really using. I tried searching for it and the articles don't tell me the actual usage. They use words like "up to" and "as much as" which I suspect are the numbers from the permits. How many gallons are they actually using in a year? And how much of that goes back into the ground water? And what chemicals are in the water going back into the ground? Those are the things I care about.

 

[kenmbz]

Behind a paywall, so I can't see all of the info, but:

The actual amount consumed by a specific New York data center isn't publicly available, as the industry typically resists transparency, but New York is a leader in the number of data centers in the Great Lakes region, with 143 reported in July 2025

Their Water Taps Ran Dry When Meta Built Next Door​

The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com › meta-data-center-water




Jul 16, 2025 — A data center like Meta's, which was completed last year, typically guzzles around 500,000 gallons of water a day. New data centers built to ...

 

[jjeff]

I remember southeast WI was promoting the Great lakes Water as an economic driver for future technologies. I guess using it for cooling data servers wasn't in the agreement protecting the Great lakes and it's Watersheds signed with Canada years ago..

 

[jjeff]

With many great technological advances, everyday, it seems, why can't they use salt water to cool these servers or whatever there called.

 

[kenmbz]

With many great technological advances, everyday, it seems, why can't they use salt water to cool these servers or whatever there called.

Salt + metal = rust I would think.
High mineral content too and could be reactive in other ways.

They were talking about geothermal cooling, wonder what that would do to the planets core?

 

[paulsharvey]

With many great technological advances, everyday, it seems, why can't they use salt water to cool these servers or whatever there called.

Would just be more energy intensive to clean the water first.
In the end; they will be recycling the water the use for cooling, and people get scared when they see gallon numbers. 1,000 residential homes would use 300,000 gallons per day, and that's not recycled.