In the Land of the Thirsty Machines: AI’s Unseen Strain on Our Water Supply

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is widely heralded as a solution to climate change, offering tools for energy optimization, environmental modeling, and sustainable agriculture. Yet beneath this optimistic narrative lies a largely overlooked ecological cost: water consumption. This lesson asks students to engage with topics in AI ethics, including hydrological ethics and its impacts on water scarcity, aquifer depletion, and planetary-scale extractivism