The price of constructing a synthetic intelligence product like ChatGPT will be exhausting to measure.

But one factor Microsoft-backed OpenAI wanted for its know-how was loads of water, pulled from the watershed of the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers in central Iowa to chill a robust supercomputer because it helped educate its AI techniques tips on how to mimic human writing.

As they race to capitalize on a craze for generative AI, main tech builders together with Microsoft, OpenAI and Google have acknowledged that rising demand for his or her AI instruments carries hefty prices, from costly semiconductors to a rise in water consumption.

But they’re typically secretive in regards to the specifics. Few individuals in Iowa knew about its standing as a birthplace of OpenAI’s most superior massive language mannequin, GPT-4, earlier than a high Microsoft govt mentioned in a speech it “was literally made next to cornfields west of Des Moines.”

Building a big language mannequin requires analyzing patterns throughout an enormous trove of human-written textual content. All of that computing takes plenty of electrical energy and generates plenty of warmth. To preserve it cool on scorching days, knowledge facilities must pump in water — typically to a cooling tower exterior its warehouse-sized buildings.

In its latest environmental report, Microsoft disclosed that its world water consumption spiked 34% from 2021 to 2022 (to almost 1.7 billion gallons, or greater than 2,500 Olympic-sized swimming swimming pools), a pointy enhance in comparison with earlier years that exterior researchers tie to its AI analysis.

“It’s fair to say the majority of the growth is due to AI,” together with “its heavy investment in generative AI and partnership with OpenAI,” mentioned Shaolei Ren, a researcher on the University of California, Riverside who has been making an attempt to calculate the environmental impression of generative AI merchandise equivalent to ChatGPT.

In a paper resulting from be revealed later this yr, Ren’s group estimates ChatGPT gulps up 500 milliliters of water (near what’s in a 16-ounce water bottle) each time you ask it a collection of between 5 to 50 prompts or questions. The vary varies relying on the place its servers are situated and the season. The estimate contains oblique water utilization that the businesses don’t measure — equivalent to to chill energy vegetation that provide the information facilities with electrical energy.

“Most people are not aware of the resource usage underlying ChatGPT,” Ren mentioned. “If you’re not aware of the resource usage, then there’s no way that we can help conserve the resources.”

Google reported a 20% progress in water use in the identical interval, which Ren additionally largely attributes to its AI work. Google’s spike wasn’t uniform — it was regular in Oregon the place its water use has attracted public consideration, whereas doubling exterior Las Vegas. It was additionally thirsty in Iowa, drawing extra potable water to its Council Bluffs knowledge facilities than anyplace else.

In response to questions from The Associated Press, Microsoft mentioned in a press release this week that it’s investing in analysis to measure AI’s vitality and carbon footprint “whereas engaged on methods to make massive techniques extra environment friendly, in each coaching and software.”

“We will continue to monitor our emissions, accelerate progress while increasing our use of clean energy to power data centers, purchasing renewable energy, and other efforts to meet our sustainability goals of being carbon negative, water positive and zero waste by 2030,” the corporate’s assertion mentioned.

OpenAI echoed these feedback in its personal assertion Friday, saying it is giving “appreciable thought” to the very best use of computing energy.

“We acknowledge coaching massive fashions will be vitality and water-intensive” and work to enhance efficiencies, it mentioned.

Microsoft made its first $1 billion funding in San Francisco-based OpenAI in 2019, greater than two years earlier than the startup launched ChatGPT and sparked worldwide fascination with AI advancements. As a part of the deal, the software program large would provide computing energy wanted to coach the AI fashions.

To do not less than a few of that work, the 2 corporations appeared to West Des Moines, Iowa, a metropolis of 68,000 individuals the place Microsoft has been amassing knowledge facilities to energy its cloud computing companies for greater than a decade. Its fourth and fifth knowledge facilities are resulting from open there later this yr.

“They’re building them as fast as they can,” mentioned Steve Gaer, who was the town’s mayor when Microsoft got here to city. Gaer mentioned the corporate was drawn to the town’s dedication to constructing public infrastructure and contributed a “staggering” sum of cash via tax funds that help that funding.

“But, you know, they were pretty secretive on what they’re doing out there,” he added.

Microsoft first mentioned it was creating one of many world’s strongest supercomputers for OpenAI in 2020, declining to disclose its location to AP on the time however describing it as a “single system” with greater than 285,000 cores of typical semiconductors, and 10,000 graphics processors — a type of chip that’s become crucial to AI workloads.

Experts have mentioned it may possibly make sense to “pretrain” an AI mannequin at a single location due to the massive quantities of knowledge that should be transferred between computing cores.

It wasn’t till late May that Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, disclosed that it had constructed its “advanced AI supercomputing data center” in Iowa, completely to allow OpenAI to coach what has turn into its fourth-generation mannequin, GPT-4. The mannequin now powers premium variations of ChatGPT and a few of Microsoft’s personal merchandise and has accelerated a debate about containing AI’s societal dangers.

“It was made by these extraordinary engineers in California, but it was really made in Iowa,” Smith mentioned.

In some methods, West Des Moines is a comparatively environment friendly place to coach a robust AI system, particularly in comparison with Microsoft’s knowledge facilities in Arizona that devour much more water for a similar computing demand.

“So if you are developing AI models within Microsoft, then you should schedule your training in Iowa instead of in Arizona,” Ren said. “In terms of training, there’s no difference. In terms of water consumption or energy consumption, there’s a big difference.”

For a lot of the yr, Iowa’s climate is cool sufficient for Microsoft to make use of exterior air to maintain the supercomputer working correctly and vent warmth out of the constructing. Only when the temperature exceeds 29.3 levels Celsius (about 85 levels Fahrenheit) does it withdraw water, the corporate has mentioned in a public disclosure.

That can nonetheless be plenty of water, particularly in the summertime. In July 2022, the month earlier than OpenAI says it completed its coaching of GPT-4, Microsoft pumped in about 11.5 million gallons of water to its cluster of Iowa knowledge facilities, based on the West Des Moines Water Works. That amounted to about 6% of all of the water used within the district, which additionally provides ingesting water to the town’s residents.

In 2022, a doc from the West Des Moines Water Works mentioned it and the town authorities “will only consider future data center projects” from Microsoft if those projects can “demonstrate and implement technology to significantly reduce peak water usage from the current levels” to protect the water provide for residential and different business wants.

Microsoft mentioned Thursday it’s working immediately with the water works to deal with its suggestions. In a written assertion, the water works mentioned the corporate has been a very good associate and has been working with native officers to scale back its water footprint whereas nonetheless assembly its wants.