What are the benefits obtained from AI’s massive use of electricity and water (‘We’re up against forces that have all the money in the world’: Erin Brockovich on her battle against AI datacentres, 29 June)? Analysis shows that the top four uses of AI are “therapy/companionship”, “technical assistance and troubleshooting”, “fun and nonsense”, and “fan fiction and storytelling”.
AI use for therapy, and due to loneliness, appears not to reduce loneliness. AI provides affirmation, but at the expense of reducing the social skills needed to interact in the real world. Teachers report that students’ use of AI reduces their capacity for critical thinking.
To save us from climate devastation, like the deaths that the recent heatwave has caused, and the food shortages it is likely to cause, carbon emissions must be much lower. Electricity prices should vary according to the emissions the generation causes. Until clean renewable electricity has replaced fossil fuels, the “polluter pays” principle should make all but the clearly vital uses of AI prohibitively expensive.
Tim Root
London
Life cannot survive without water (including agriculture, drinking and sanitation). A recent editorial in the British Medical Journal introduced me to the concept of water bankruptcy “in which extraction persistently exceeds replenishment”.
The giant datacentres that are being built by billionaires for AI will extract water for cooling in immense quantities. At some sites it is possible that there is enough water to go around, but in many places agriculture, drinking and sanitation would be in competition with datacentres.
Distant investors in AI are unlikely to care if local humans are hungry, thirsty and dirty. Regulations and legislation are needed now to protect all the stakeholders.
Woody Caan
Duxford, Cambridgeshire
There’s little doubt that the sudden explosion of datacentre construction presents a serious environmental and governmental challenge. It also should be noted that this is one of the detrimental effects of what is almost assuredly a bubble in AI investment. The sums of money being spent on this industry, which is out of proportion to realistic estimates of the eventual profits it can produce, are truly astronomical.
Because of the unsustainable economics of the situation, it is likely that many datacentres will eventually be abandoned and become industrial wastelands, similar to the shells of “rust belt” industries that still litter the US.
Joel Bolonick
Oakland, California, US
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