Environmental Impact of AI
AI has become an integral part of many people’s daily lives, from helping plan vacations to assisting with writing and editing documents. However, these incredible advancements in technology also have significant environmental impacts.
For AI to be efficient, it needs ample space with climate control to prevent overheating. It is estimated that in 2026, electricity consumption for data centers is expected to approach 1,050 terawatt-hours. For comparison, this is equivalent to powering a hundred million homes for an hour (Solsystems 2024, Zewe 2025).
An AI-based internet search can consume 10 times the electricity of a classic Google search (UN Environment Programme, 2024). This high electricity demand can have detrimental effects on the electrical grid and our sourcing of electricity.
Alongside its high electrical consumption, AI is known to be water intensive (UN Environmental Programme, 2024). Data centers require fresh water to cool the servers and assist in the production of electricity needed to power the center.
A study from Cornell found that in 2022, the technology giants (Google, Microsoft, and Meta) had used an estimated 580 billion gallons of water (Li, Yang et al. 2025), which is enough water to cover the needs of 15 million households annually (Murrey, DiFelice, 2025). This high water cost leads to significant stress on the local water supply and could result in depleted water sources for residents and local farmers (Murrey, DiFelice, 2025).
Tips for reducing your AI impact
How can we address the high consequences of the tools that we aren’t only encouraged to use but also have difficulty avoiding in today’s world?
One of the important first steps is to be conscious of what questions you ask. Instead of making multiple requests to get to one point, put all your questions in one.
Second, keep your library of AI questions clean. Removing extra “chats” from previous questions removes them from the storage space in these data centers.
If you have a simple question to ask, consider asking Google instead of ChatGPT to conserve the extra resources required to obtain the same answer. Ultimately, the best approach is to minimize the use of AI-based platforms.
In today’s environment, AI is hard to avoid, and all we can do is our best to reduce and mitigate its impact as much as possible.
Resources
Li, Pengfei, Yang, Jianyi. Islam, Mohammad. Ren, Shaolei. (March 2025). Making AI Less “Thirsty”: Uncovering and Addressing the Secret Water Footprint of AI Models. Cornell University.
Murray, Ben, DiFelice, Mia (April 9, 2025). Artificial Intelligence: Big Tech’s Big Threat to Our Water and Climate. Food & Water Watch. https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2025/04/09/artificial-intelligence-water-climate/#:~:text=Given%20that%2C%20we%20found%20that,needs%20of%2018.5%20million%20households.
Solsystems. (2024). Making Sense of Energy Units. Sustainable Choice. https://thesustainablechoice.com/making-sense-of-energy-units/
UN Environment Programme (September 21, 2024). AI has an environmental problem. Here’s what the world can do about that. UN Environment Programme. https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/ai-has-environmental-problem-heres-what-world-can-do-about
Zewe, Andrew (January 17, 2025). Explained: Generative AI’s Environmental Impact. MIT News. https://news.mit.edu/2025/explained-generative-ai-environmental-impact-0117
