The University of Rhode Island’s AI lab estimates that GPT-5 averages just over 18 Wh per query, so putting all of ChatGPT’s reported 2.5 billion requests a day through the model could see energy usage as high as 45 GWh.
A daily energy use of 45 GWh is enormous. A typical modern nuclear power plant produces between 1 and 1.6 GW of electricity per reactor per hour, so data centers running OpenAI’s GPT-5 at 18 Wh per query could require the power equivalent of two to three nuclear power reactors, an amount that could be enough to power a small country.
It would only take one regulation to fix that:
Datacenters that use liquid cooling must use closed loop systems.
The reason they dont, and why they setup in the desert, is because water is incredibly cheap and energy to cool a closed loop system is expensive. So they use evaporative open loop systems.
Closed loop systems require a large heat sync, like a cold water lake, limiting them to locations that are not as tax advantageous as dry red states.
Aw, that’s unfortunate for the big mega tech corps. Anyway.
Unfortunately I wonder if it’s more expensive to set up a closed loop system that’s really expensive or to buy lawmakers that will vote against bills saying you should do so and it’s a tale old as time
Politicians are cheap
Yeah sorry forgot my /s there
That increases your energy use though, because evaporative cooling is very energy efficient.
We can make energy from renewable sources.
Fresh drinking water is finite, especially in the desert.