January 2025 Edition of InterLink – Stories from AVK around the world
On AVK InterLink no. 67, we gather stories from AVK around the world and share their meaningful projects, accomplishment as well as their business highlight. 20-09-2017
Water Usage in Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Did you know that one question on ChatGPT can be up to 50 times worse for the environment than asking Google search engine? Researcher and professor from USC Annenberg (University of Carolina, USA) Kate Crawford, probing the issue about the correlation between water consumption with the use of artificial intelligence (AI), specifically ChatGPT.
During the podcast interview regarding AI, Kate explained her considerations:
“Every time you ask a question to ChatGPT, it leaves a climate footprint due to the large amount of water consumption. In fact, several billion litres of water are used per year. There is a misconception that artificial intelligence is an intangible technology that is just algorithms in a cloud. What really happens is, it is enormously energy and water intensive—especially generative AI like ChatGPT.”
This happened due to the usage of water in data centres cooling system to prevent overheating on their servers. According to the AP, Microsoft has stated that their water consumption increased by 34% from 2021-2022 (6.4 billion litres of water)—happened during the launch of ChatGPT-4. In comparison to this, Kate Crawford in another interview said, it costs a large bottle of water per prompt/question asked to ChatGPT.
Green Energy Transition Challenges
The world is transforming and begin to shift for green energy for greater sustainability. However, the green transition has revealed new challenges that can have a major consequence for our water. Mining minerals such as lithium, cobalt, graphite, etc. for computers and electrical vehicle (EV) is often associated with pegmatite—which can have a high amount of radioactive content and be related with radon as well as arsenic. If we want to connect the issue above, mining can later contaminate groundwater.
As green energy transition helps to improve society, this does not happen without affecting other areas such as water.
Stories from Around the World
Better Leak Detection = Less Water Loss
At AVK, we work focused to reduce water loss in water distribution to be part of the solution to ensure clean water for everyone. The leak detection field is an opportunity for AVK to show our customers how they can detect leakages in their water supply network. We can help them find and close the leaks—and run their water supply in an efficient manner.
Upgraded Fire Protection System in the Port of Rotterdam
As part of upgraded fire protection system along the railway system, AVK with ProRail (Dutch railway organisation) using UL/FM approved series 27 hydrants as well as gate valves for corrosive environment applications, delivered over 500 units for both products in total.
Check out more interesting and insightful stories in our magazine below.
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