US Data Centers Consume 17 Billion Gallons Water Cooling 2023

Data centers supporting the rapid growth of artificial intelligence technology are consuming vast amounts of water for cooling and electricity production, with U.S. data centers alone using billions of gallons annually and projections indicating this could multiply significantly by 2028. The Great Lakes region, with its cool climate and abundant water, is becoming a prime location for large data centers, but this raises concerns about water resource competition and depletion affecting millions of people and the regional economy. Meanwhile, advances in Automated Machine Learning (AutoML) in 2025 are democratizing AI development, enabling non-technical users to create AI models with no-code tools and freeing data scientists to focus on innovation. Google exemplifies how extensive AI integration boosts productivity internally, with AI generating 30% of new code, accelerating engineering processes, enhancing creative content production, and increasing sales proposals. Google's AI tools, including Gemini, Imagen, and NotebookLM, are also used to automate repetitive tasks, generate meeting notes, and analyze employee feedback, illustrating AI's broad impact across company functions. Additionally, Google is expanding AI creative tools like Flow and Whisk to empower users worldwide with increased AI-generated content capabilities.