New York: The growing popularity of artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to lead to more data being created in the next three years than ever before. Countries like the US and China, with the vast amounts of data they collect, are gaining momentum to dominate global technology, especially with the influence of tech giants such as Amazon, Google, and Meta in the US, and Tencent and ByteDance in China.
According to Anadolu Agency, the amount of data produced continues to grow due to rapid developments in technology, as highlighted in The Age of Data, a ‘visual essay on data evolution’ by the Singaporean firm Hinrich Foundation. The report states that two zettabytes of data were produced in 2010 with the rise of social media platforms, with one zettabyte equating to one trillion gigabytes. This figure more than doubled to five zettabytes in 2011.
In 2022, when ChatGPT was made available to the public, garnering over 1 million users in its first week, the amount of data created reached 101 zettabytes, 50 times more than 2010’s figure. The report estimates that around 552 zettabytes of data will be generated in 2024, 2025, and 2026 combined. Data centers are expected to consume half of New York City’s daily water demand as data creation increases, leading to higher water consumption required to cool data centers and power their operations.
Data centers are projected to consume 1.7 million liters (450 million gallons) of water by 2030-enough to meet half of New York City’s water demand-while consuming more electricity than Germany. In 2022, data centers and AI operations consumed 460 terawatt-hours of electricity, a figure expected to rise 74% to 800 terawatt-hours by 2026. Germany consumes 507 terawatt-hours of electricity per year.
Ibrahim Geylan, a data center engineer at Trkiye’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority, told Anadolu that data centers are the archive storage of the new digital era. He explained that data center equipment consumes electricity and generates high heat, necessitating air-conditioned spaces to eliminate the heat. “For example, a data center with a 500-kilowatt-hour load generates 500 kilowatt-hours of heat, requiring 500 kilowatts of cooling capacity,” he noted.
Geylan further stated that such facilities utilize high-capacity air conditioners to meet their needs, as well as water, which plays a significant role in cooling. However, he emphasized that drinking-quality water is required for these data centers to prevent damage to the cooling equipment. He added that global data center brands now aim to facilitate water access and maximize benefits to their cooling systems by constructing their facilities near seas and rivers.