So I have a question about the current sweeping AI trend. We keep hearing about how much water it needs to cool all those enormous new data centres. Why does it need so much compute?

I mean, creating  the models is pretty hardcore, but once it's done it's done. They aren't running a supercomputer for each individual chatgpt session, you can run it yourself on a reasonably beefy home PC. Creating the model is where the real work is, but once it's done you can just download it to your PC when you need it.

Right? Wrong?

The previous Big Sexy was blockchain. That was also a big data centre bad guy, only then we worried about how much carbon was being released to generate all the electricity they used. We got stories about how secret blockchain mining bunkers were using half a nearby town's electricity supply, but this iteration we don't mention that at all because it's all about the water.

And there's no push-back. No press releases about how the water cooling system at the new datacentre is actually fine because the water is returned to the system, or it's closed-cycle so they fill up a reservoir once and never take another drop of our water, or they only use undrinkable grey water or something. Or challenging the claims about how much water is being used.

So who is spinning these stories? Is there a PR agency somewhere being paid to ensure we don't blame the Microsofts and Metas of the world for global heating, and that's why we're griping about water instead?