Nice article. I think there's two points that make AI's water consumption "worse", though, and maybe it is because I think gen. AI is horrible in general already.

For one, I don't feel there is a net goodness coming out of public AI use. Charging my phone has some good of it, because I can talk to my friends and family, listen to music, get updates on new JHS products ;), and do business things. Meanwhile, every offering of generative AI seems to be a net loss (see: intellectual atrophying). This opens a broader conversation of "what is worth its water consumption?", but I'm not equipped to measure the value of most things in that way right now.

Second, I think the bigger environmental concern is WHERE these data centers are. Facebook has data centers nearly in people's backyards, which directly ruins their water supply, such as in Mansfield, Georgia.

Regardless, you're very right that data is easy to manipulate in any direction, and I appreciate you going beyond "that sounds bad so there must be nothing more going on!".