Check out The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity if you haven't already. It breaks it down well. It's a very quickly read.

archive.ph/2024.09.23-2... <- there is the article. No mention of how the water is used beyond evaporative cooling, which is more non-renewable resource efficient, but is evaporating the water supply and letting nature deposit it elsewhere. Seems bad for places that lack water.

I guess I don't see what the ethical conundrum is here unless it's pulled from an aquifer and turned into surface water. If "using" the water puts it back where it would have already been, the electricity seems like a bigger concern to me. I wish the article wasn't paywalled.

What does AI using water actually mean? The water is not destroyed is it? Is it removed from the regular water cycle and use in a loop of some kind and then returned, or is it pulled from the ground and released as surface water? Is it polluted in the process and returned polluted?

How does CA have one and Detroit doesn't?

It appears to be the same for me.

Nailed it.

I live in TX. This is a fact, just ask us.