In protests held from Texas to New Mexico and Arizona, slogans such as "Protect our water," "Water for people, not AI," and "Don't touch our water" were visible. Local residents are increasingly protesting due to the water consumption, energy use, and pollution caused by the rapid expansion of data centers across the United States, which are being built to increase artificial intelligence capacity.
Many data centers rely on water to cool processors; water absorbs heat from the air or surfaces and cools through evaporation, much like the body sweating. Internal processor temperatures inside these centers can reach 176 degrees Fahrenheit (about 80 degrees Celsius), similar to laptops running under heavy load.
Although the energy consumption of these data centers is clearly high, water usage is a more complex issue. Various claims have circulated online; some state that a single query to a chatbot can consume up to 500 milliliters of water, while others argue that there is no water consumption problem linked to artificial intelligence. Data provided by major technology companies is often incomplete and inconsistent.