Los Angeles continues to battle devastating wildfires. Over a week has passed, yet the inferno is still spreading. How did the fire start? Investigators are searching for answers, and speculation is running wild. Climate change, faulty power lines, deliberate arson, and mismanagement of resources—anything and everything is being blamed. But one theory is gaining more traction than the rest: ChatGPT caused the wildfires.
That’s right. Social media has a new scapegoat: ChatGPT, the same AI chatbot that can do math and pen poems.
Before we delve into why this theory exists, let’s quickly look at the situation on the ground. Twenty-five people have died, and six million remain under threat from the fires. Two major fires are currently active: the Palisades and the Eaton fires. Firefighters are battling these blazes, but powerful winds make their job incredibly difficult. Conditions are expected to ease this weekend, but Los Angeles still has a long road to recovery.
Now, back to the culprit. Social media users claim that ChatGPT caused the fires. But is that true? Is ChatGPT really responsible for the wildfires, and why is social media blaming artificial intelligence?
To understand this, let’s look at how ChatGPT works. Imagine typing a prompt into ChatGPT. The prompt is turned into code. This code flows through a network of servers that run thousands of complex calculations, ultimately producing the best possible response for you. All of this happens on massive, power-hungry servers. These servers work hard and, as a result, generate heat—lots of heat. To prevent overheating, data centers rely on cooling systems, which use vast amounts of water to maintain optimal temperatures.
Here’s where the controversy arises. ChatGPT is a water guzzler. To put it in perspective, a 100-word email requires about a bottle of water to process. For every four to five prompts, ChatGPT consumes nearly 500 milliliters of water.
Now let’s zoom out and look at the bigger picture. In 2024, ChatGPT had 300 million weekly active users. Imagine the amount of energy it consumed and the scale of water it required. This is why social media users are complaining.
Los Angeles is located in Southern California, a region that has experienced drought in the past. Water is already scarce here, and the wildfires have worsened the situation. The fires began on January 7th, and soon fire hydrants were running low on water. The LA Fire Department struggled to manage, and that’s when social media started connecting the dots: ChatGPT relies on water, Los Angeles is running out of water, so naturally, ChatGPT must be to blame.
The fact is, this theory holds little water. The fire hydrants ran dry because of overwhelming demand. Additionally, the municipal water system is poorly designed and cannot handle the demands of fast-moving wildfires. So, this is not an AI problem—it’s an infrastructure problem.
That said, ChatGPT isn’t entirely off the hook. While it may not be responsible for this particular fire, it is part of a larger issue. Our planet is heating up, and extreme weather events like these wildfires are becoming increasingly common. Addressing this crisis requires collective action. We need to conserve natural resources like water, but instead, we’re building more AI data centers that consume gallons of water and electricity to write emails.
The crisis in Los Angeles is a wake-up call. It’s not just about the technologies we use today—it’s about how we manage the infrastructure that supports them. AI companies must do better. They need to explore alternative cooling methods or move data centers to cooler climates. After all, the future of AI doesn’t just lie in the promise of intelligence—it lies in how responsibly it can be integrated into our world.
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