We all just look at energy as a price. I think more people are concerned if our prices will go up, not how much energy it uses. The bigger question is water.

How much water do they use? Is it potable to begin with? Is it usable after? Will they drive prices up. These are one time builds with minimal jobs created after for a tech that could end my career. If I lose my job, I don’t also want to have no water and higher bills.

The talk about AI water usage exists because in Karen Hao’s book Empire of AI, she got water usage wrong by three orders of magnitude.[1] For data centers that use water cooling, it's almost always non-potable water, and it's usually returned to the body of water it was pumped out of (though slightly warmer).

If you're worried about water consumption, things like golf courses and farm subsidies for water-intensive crops are much bigger issues.

1. https://blog.andymasley.com/p/empire-of-ai-is-wildly-mislead...