They keep data centers at 65 degrees, about the same as the conference center ballroom where I attended mandatory AI training last month down in Plymouth.
The presenter was wearing a tweed blazer so didn’t seem to notice the cold. He was also moving around a lot more than us.
He was an upbeat and solicitous guy, a professional speaker, and during the preliminaries said he’d spent five weeks this year in Spain, visiting museums and galleries and whatnot. Which sounded great.
This was an overview session for a grab-bag group, tech-forward, tech-backward, tech-curious, tech-hopeless. The focus was on utility and productivity and heavy on inevitability – the “rapid adoption” of a “kind of magical” technology.
Some people were taking notes on their laptops, others were not. Some just sat there or sent emails. Others obscured their screens.
I was with the presenter when he said, relatably, “I’m not a great writer; I write decently,” but I wandered a bit when he said he uses AI for “the lion’s share of my drafting.” And wandered further when he disclosed that a so-called Humanizer scan of his final draft scored it “91-percent human writing.”
“I thought 91 percent was pretty good,” he said.
When the presenter said Microsoft Copilot “is a good writer, it’s solid,” I got up and took a walk.
When I returned, I fired up YouTube and saw a push ad:
How much water do Indiana data centers really use? The answer might surprise you.
OK, surprise me.
I clicked on the link and here’s what I learned: These push ads are funded by Indiana Connects, a state DBA for America Connects, Inc., a Virginia-based nonprofit run by the Data Center Coalition, an industry trade group representing all the biggies, including Amazon, out in New Carlisle.
So Indiana Connects is a front group.
Anyway, the big surprise is that despite asking the question – How much water do Indiana data centers really use? They say, “Some data centers in Indiana do not use water for cooling up to 98% of the time.”
I was not a math major. I am not a lobbyist, or an ad buyer, or a communications consultant, or someone whose job depends on not understanding percentages. But I know we’re missing some information here.
Like, how much water are Indiana data centers using the other two percent of the time?
It’s hard to do math without numbers.
A Google search, now a Gemini AI search, tells us Indiana data centers use about one to five million gallons of water per day. That nets out to 365 million to 1.825 billion gallons of water per year.
That answer does surprise me!
Back in the cooler, after our session, I asked the presenter if he ever discusses the environmental effects of constant AI use. He said that’s a delicate topic. Some people don’t want to hear about it.
Then he told me he wants to retire and forget about AI. It was an abrupt and surprising turn.
“I’m glad I’m old,” he said. “I’m glad I have a retirement account.”
I told him I have a son who’s eight. I said he’s just getting started.
I left the ballroom for a night hike with the boy and his mom up the road at Spicer Lake. Out on the Wetland Trail we heard some cranes rattling at one another, and my son photographed a frog in the mud.
We drove home past the noise and lights of the Amazon Babylon and my son photographed that too.
“By The Rivers Of Babylon,” by Willie Nelson
