Most God-fearing people are wary of artificial intelligence (AI), yet it’s becoming increasingly entrenched in our daily lives – from films like The Last Screenwriter by Peter Luisi, whose script was credited to ChatGPT, to the rise of AI filters that turn you into a witch or princess (remember when everyone was posting those on Instagram?). Friends still at university tell me that in the library, nearly every laptop has ChatGPT open. It is a digital epidemic impacting not only our academic spaces, but also our environment. And Ayo Edebiri has had enough!

The Emmy Award-winning actress took to Instagram to share a post from the environmental account Waste Free Planet, highlighting an infographic on the environmental toll of AI. The post, reshared by Edebiri, read: “By 2027, AI usage alone is predicted to use as much water as all of New Zealand.” Writing above the post, Edebiri urged her audience to: “pls stop using AI to see what you’d look like as a sexy Sims character or whatever – you can commission some talented and horny freak to do it for like $6 or idk, also use your imagination. You’d look like you but smaller – there, I did it. This shit is cooking the planet!!!! And our brains!!!!”

Edebiri is right. AI consumes an enormous amount of water. In 2023, The Independent reported that Microsoft’s data centres alone used more than 2,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water in a single year. This is because AI requires vast computing resources, conducting complex calculations around the clock. Since these AI systems run on cloud servers rather than personal computers, tech companies maintain massive data centres to handle the constant demand.

To prevent overheating, these server farms require large volumes of water for cooling. According to Microsoft’s latest environmental report, water consumption at the company surged by 34 per cent between 2021 and 2022, reaching nearly 1.7 billion gallons. With the expansion of AI, the environmental costs are only growing and it’s killing our planet. 

This should give us pause. While AI services like ChatGPT offer undeniable convenience, they are, as Edebiri so aptly put it, cooking our brains and cooking the planet. Before opening that next AI app, we might all want to think twice.