![]() “In terms of training, there’s no difference. “So if you are developing AI models within Microsoft, then you should schedule your training in Iowa instead of in Arizona,” Ren said. In some ways, West Des Moines is a relatively efficient place to train a powerful AI system, especially compared to Microsoft’s data centers in Arizona that consume far more water for the same computing demand. “It was made by these extraordinary engineers in California, but it was really made in Iowa,” Smith said. The model now powers premium versions of ChatGPT and some of Microsoft’s own products and has accelerated a debate about containing AI’s societal risks. It wasn’t until late May that Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, disclosed that it had built its “advanced AI supercomputing data center” in Iowa, exclusively to enable OpenAI to train what has become its fourth-generation model, GPT-4. Microsoft first said it was developing one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers for OpenAI in 2020, declining to reveal its location to AP at the time but describing it as a “single system” with more than 285,000 cores of conventional semiconductors, and 10,000 graphics processors - a kind of chip that’s become crucial to AI workloads.Įxperts have said it can make sense to “pretrain” an AI model at a single location because of the large amounts of data that need to be transferred between computing cores. “But, you know, they were pretty secretive on what they’re doing out there,” he added. Gaer said the company was attracted to the city’s commitment to building public infrastructure and contributed a “staggering” sum of money through tax payments that support that investment. ![]() “They’re building them as fast as they can,” said Steve Gaer, who was the city’s mayor when Microsoft came to town. ![]() Its fourth and fifth data centers are due to open there later this year. To do at least some of that work, the two companies looked to West Des Moines, Iowa, a city of 68,000 people where Microsoft has been amassing data centers to power its cloud computing services for more than a decade. As part of the deal, the software giant would supply computing power needed to train the AI models. Microsoft made its first $1 billion investment in San Francisco-based OpenAI in 2019, more than two years before the startup introduced ChatGPT and sparked worldwide fascination with AI advancements. “We recognize training large models can be energy and water-intensive” and work to improve efficiencies, it said. OpenAI echoed those comments in its own statement Friday, saying it’s giving “considerable thought” to the best use of computing power. “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 company’s statement said. In response to questions from The Associated Press, Microsoft said in a statement this week that it is investing in research to measure AI’s energy and carbon footprint “while working on ways to make large systems more efficient, in both training and application.” It was also thirsty in Iowa, drawing more potable water to its Council Bluffs data centers than anywhere else. Google’s spike wasn’t uniform - it was steady in Oregon where its water use has attracted public attention, while doubling outside Las Vegas. Google reported a 20% growth in water use in the same period, which Ren also largely attributes to its AI work. “If you’re not aware of the resource usage, then there’s no way that we can help conserve the resources.” “Most people are not aware of the resource usage underlying ChatGPT,” Ren said. ![]() The estimate includes indirect water usage that the companies don’t measure - such as to cool power plants that supply the data centers with electricity. The range varies depending on where its servers are located and the season. In a paper due to be published later this year, Ren’s team estimates ChatGPT gulps up 500 milliliters of water (close to what’s in a 16-ounce water bottle) every time you ask it a series of between 5 to 50 prompts or questions. “It’s fair to say the majority of the growth is due to AI,” including “its heavy investment in generative AI and partnership with OpenAI,” said Shaolei Ren, a researcher at the University of California, Riverside who has been trying to calculate the environmental impact of generative AI products such as ChatGPT. In its latest environmental report, Microsoft disclosed that its global water consumption spiked 34% from 2021 to 2022 (to nearly 1.7 billion gallons, or more than 2,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools), a sharp increase compared to previous years that outside researchers tie to its AI research.
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