Some of the data centers use a lot of water that is increasingly scarce in Arizona. As Sarah Porter, Director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy, pointed out to me, citing another person's research: In Arizona, each demand for an answer from a generative AI tool like ChatGPT consumes 2 1/4 tablespoons of water for cooling the centers.

“Sometimes I feel like people don’t want to do the heavy lifting,” said Kathleen Ferris, who is now a water policy researcher at Arizona State University. “Instead, they want to just find the next water supply and be done with it and have somebody else pay for it.”

"Atmospheric water harvesting systems can be an 'important tool' for disaster response when water supplies might be offline for an extended period of time," says Paul Westerhoff at Arizona State University, and are well-suited for places with relatively high humidity like Florida. However, he says their reliance on electricity, often from a generator, has been an issue during past disasters.

“Why don't we do the things that we know are possible and that are within our jurisdiction first,” Kathleen Ferris said, “Before we go looking for some kind of a grand proposal that we don't have any reason to believe at the moment could succeed.”

“I think the investment in the infrastructure will ultimately make the system more resilient for the community,” said Cora Tso, a senior research fellow at Arizona State University's Kyl Center for Water Policy. “The ag industry uses a significant amount of water, and thinking about making that system more sustainable would ultimately benefit the state.”

"Beyond water, chip fabrication requires geologically stable ground, low humidity and a positive business climate for manufacturers and the families they employ. Even without Arizona’s approach to water usage, the dry climate is ideal," says Paul Westerhoff.

"Many people in Arizona believe, even though it's incorrect, that the water under their land is their property. That's never been the law in Arizona, and we have an Arizona Supreme Court opinion that says it is not your property," says Sarah Porter. "But regardless of what our Supreme Court said at some point, it feels to people, to some people, that we're tinkering with a property right."

“I’ve been screaming into the wind about this for 15, 20 years now,” said Jay Famiglietti. “We don’t know how much groundwater we have, which seems ridiculous. And the reason we don’t know is because it costs money [to find out].” 

“We’re trying to help CAP anticipate what the Colorado River will look like in the future, 20 years from now and 100 years from now, because water agencies need to start adapting management to a new reality and communicating this to those sectors in Arizona that depend on its water supply,” Enrique Vivoni says. “This includes farmers, cities and tribes, so it affects the entire state’s economic activity.”