AI data centers may have created as much pollution as New York City and used a world’s supply of bottled water in just one year

AI running in data centers will likely produce more CO2 this year than many small countries or the entire city of New York, new research suggests.

In a study published on Monday by the peer-reviewed journal Patterns, data scientist Alex de Vries-Gao estimated the carbon emissions from electricity used by AI at between 33 million and 80 million metric tons.