Opinions on artificial intelligence (AI) are split. Some people think AI is the best thing since sliced bread, while others believe AI is a sign of the end times.
On its own, AI is neither good nor bad. It depends entirely on how it is used. For example, AI is helping the medical field make leaps and bounds.
For example, AI has done wonders for drug research and development. During the COVID-19 pandemic, AI was used to significantly speed up the vaccine development process.
On the other hand, there are plenty of examples of AI being used for bad. One of the most common concerns is that AI will replace jobs or threaten certain careers.
Nowadays, you can’t read an article without feeling like it was written by AI. Rest assured, I am not a robot…as far as you know.
Artists have it especially bad. AI is making it increasingly difficult for artists to exceed in an already uncertain market.
A piece of art an artist spent a month on can be created by a prompt engineer in mere seconds using AI. The worst part is that the tools used to create AI-based art are accessible to just about anyone.
Most people’s experiences with AI exist online, but the irresponsible use of AI can have very real consequences in the offline world, too.
Enter Wonder Valley, the world’s largest AI data centre industrial park proposed for the municipal district of Greenview.
In December 2024, Greenview partnered with Kevin O’Leary to build the off-grid natural gas-powered data centre that would be used to hold computing resources and develop and train AI models.
The estimated $70 billion project is expected to take up 35 million square metres, including land shared with the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation (SLCN).
Clear as Mud
“One of our core values for the project is to engage with First Nations Indigenous communities to create a mutually beneficial relationship and one that honours the people and the lands for many years to come,” said Paul Palandjian, CEO of O’Leary Ventures.
Given Palandjian’s statement, you would think the SLCN were consulted, but they weren’t, according to SLCN Chief Sheldon Sunshine.
Sunshine said he learned about the project through social media at the same time the public found out. If an oil company started drilling a well in your backyard without your permission, how would you feel?
“We never consented to cede our lands or our territories and the resources. It actually starts to upset you because the government talks about the amount of resources they have, that they’re a rich province,” Sunshine told CTV News.
“Come and take a look at my community. We might be in the province of the Alberta Advantage, but not here,” he continues.
A lack of consultation isn’t the SLCN’s biggest concern. The proposed data centre will impact resources on their treaty land, specifically water.
“We’re always concerned about water. All life for us revolves around water. That’s the biggest thing that we have serious concerns about with these major projects,” said Sunshine.
This comparison might make your skin crawl but think of this AI data centre as a human body. We drink a cold glass of water to cool down on a hot summer day. In the same way, water is used to cool data centres like Wonder Valley.
To put things into perspective, Cornell University estimates the global AI demand will account for between 4.2 to 6.6 billion cubic metres of water withdrawal in 2027. That’s half of the annual water withdrawal of the United Kingdom.
An Olympic-sized swimming pool holds roughly 2,500 cubic metres of water, meaning you would need about 2,640,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of water to match the water demand of AI in 2027.
The Offline Consequences
For those of us lucky enough to live in places with easy access to water, these statistics might not sound too bad. For the quarter of humanity that doesn’t have access to clean water and sanitation, this news is like salt in the wound.
Water consumption isn’t the only issue with large AI projects like Wonder Valley. These projects also use massive amounts of energy.
“Those particular AI algorithms use a vast amount of energy because they’re very large in the sense that they require a large number of mathematical computations. Those algorithms are what’s used in ChatGPT, other large language models and other generative algorithms,” said McGill University’s AI expert David Rolnick.
Humans use their brains to process information frequently, which requires energy. The brain accounts for 20 percent of the body’s energy use.
AI processes information and performs mathematical calculations on a much larger scale and hundreds of thousands of times faster than humans, which requires loads of energy.
As mentioned earlier, Wonder Valley will run on natural gas, which consists mostly of methane gas, the second most dangerous emissions contributing to a warming global climate.
Rolnick estimates that Wonder Valley could potentially account for five percent of Canada’s carbon pollution.
Water and energy consumption are only two bullets on a long list of potential problems associated with large-scale AI data centres like the one proposed for Greenview.
The massive amount of raw materials and rare resources needed to build these projects and electronic waste are also concerning.
Do we really need more AI data centres so ChatGPT can give us “creative breakfast ideas?” We should be following the trend of using AI to fight the climate crisis.
