{"id":239293,"date":"2026-07-01T12:14:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T16:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/01\/we-can-live-without-ai-but-can-we-live-without-clean-water-ai-artificial-intelligence\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T12:35:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T16:35:12","slug":"we-can-live-without-ai-but-can-we-live-without-clean-water-ai-artificial-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/01\/we-can-live-without-ai-but-can-we-live-without-clean-water-ai-artificial-intelligence\/","title":{"rendered":"We can live without AI, but can we live without clean water? | AI (artificial intelligence)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2026\/jul\/01\/we-can-live-without-ai-but-can-we-live-without-clean-water\">We can live without AI, but can we live without clean water? | AI (artificial intelligence)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2026\/jul\/01\/we-can-live-without-ai-but-can-we-live-without-clean-water\">https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2026\/jul\/01\/we-can-live-without-ai-but-can-we-live-without-clean-water<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-07-01 12:14:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.theguardian.com\">www.theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here is a summary of the article highlighting its key points about the benefits and challenges posed by AI, particularly focusing on its massive use of electricity and water:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Top Uses of AI<\/strong>: The analysis indicates that AI&#8217;s key applications include providing therapy\/companionship, technical assistance and troubleshooting, entertainment through fun and nonsense, and creative writing in fan fiction and storytelling.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Concerns Regarding AI<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Therapeutic Use<\/strong>: AI used for therapy doesn&#8217;t seem to alleviate loneliness, and may negatively affect users\u2019 social skills.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Educational Impact<\/strong>: AI\u2019s use in education reportedly reduces students\u2019 critical thinking abilities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Environmental Challenges<\/strong>: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Carbon Emissions and Electricity Costs<\/strong>: Until clean renewable energy fully replaces fossil fuels, the cost of electricity used by AI should reflect its carbon emissions. The &#8220;polluter pays&#8221; principle should make non-essential AI usage prohibitively expensive.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Water Usage<\/strong>: AI datacentres are consuming vast amounts of water for cooling, potentially leading to water bankruptcy where extraction exceeds replenishment. This can jeopardize essential needs like agriculture, drinking water, and sanitation. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Economic and Regulatory Issues<\/strong>: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Unrealistic Investments<\/strong>: The financial investment in the AI industry appears to be speculative and may lead to the demise of many data centres as the returns are unlikely to justify the expenditures.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Need for Regulation<\/strong>: As distant investors are seemingly indifferent to local impacts, urgent regulations and legislation are needed to safeguard the needs of local populations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The article presents a multifaceted view on the benefits of AI technology, while underscoring significant concerns related to its environmental and economic sustainability.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We can live without AI, but can we live without clean water? | AI (artificial&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":239294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/ee6c7a3c4d84ec98c3cd685911c3e07faefa8264\/396_0_5417_4333\/master\/5417.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=84acc5191d4fe442908b2606e4635104","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-239293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239293"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239293"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239295,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239293\/revisions\/239295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}