New Delhi, June 5 -- On the occasion of World Environment Day, United Nations University published a report suggesting the environmental impact of running data centers. From water and land footprint to power consumption, these global data centers powering artificial intelligence are projected to consume nearly triple the combined annual electricity use of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria by 2030. To meet the surge in demand from artificial intelligence, it is expected that the water footprint will equal the basic annual domestic water needs of all 1.3 billion people in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The research published on June 3 by UN Institute for Water, Environment and Health warned against the rising ​environmental costs of AI as the ra...