I think there is some nuance here. Data centers are being put in cities that cannot support them at the expense of their citizens, this is a corruption problem in my opinion. Data centers could also be much more water conservant than they are, and significantly less polluting and I appreciate the public pressure they are on to improve here. The warm water being released can damage the local ecosystem as well.

I have definitely seen some absurd claims about water usage, but it also isnt totally unconcerning either.

Imo its a pr strategy, water usage is a much more solvable issue than the immense energy usage, and the ai companies would rather actovists attack them for that than for the significant power consumption.

I think the power usage is also going to go down, either because they make ai more efficient, or because they can’t make it more efficient and it continues to make no economic sense and mostly goes away. Hopefully that latter scenario leads to a lot of eccess green energy to be constructed which would make electrifying the world a little easier. But that is probably wishful thinking.