Again, defensive HN commenters respond to facts about water consumption by citing other sources of water consumption But fail to consider that "AI" adds to those sources and raises total water consupmtion Is total water consumption important Perhaps the comparision that readers will make is not (a) existing non-"AI" water consumption versus "AI" water consumption but (b) total water consumption without the additonal…
It's like when some Silicon Valley company is breaking the law and HN commenters attempt to defend/excuse the behaviour by pointing at other offenders. This is a juvenile response
Something like
"See, they do it, too."
or
"They need to investigate [not a "tech" company] first."
If the amount of water used by "AI" data centers was "negligible" then, one might expect, "AI" companies would be transparent about water usage instead of forcing the public to estimate