Trump and tech billionaires pledge $billions to AI but energy, water and resources are already under pressure

I don't know if you were aware but yesterday, on the 4th of September there was a big meeting between governance and technology. President of the United, Donald Trump invited some of the biggest names in technology to the White House for a special dinner. He had Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates sitting at his left and right side with of course the first lady right next to him. Sam Altman of Openai, Tim cook of Apple, they all showed up.

Well, Elon didn't show up and I was surprised but not that surprised considering the rocky relationship between Elon Musk and President Trump.

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They came together to talk about new investments in artificial intelligence, that was the big meeting and I understand the relevance of that. The top countries are in an AI race and Donald Trump wants America to win. Mark Zuckerberg was asked by Mr Trump how much he forsee being spent on AI by his company and Mark replied saying it would be over $600 billion dollars. That's a lot of cash and to do that means the companies truly are serious about AI.

Meta and Apple both said they will spend around six hundred billion dollars each. Microsoft said it will spend up to eighty billion dollars every year on AI, their goal is to be the world leaders of AI as they were with their currency.

Trump looked very happy and most of the founders and CEOs had good things to say about his policies and how it's helping their companies thrive. Contrary to other opinions that are against Trump's policies, these billionaires did have good things to say about the decisions of Trump.

Trump celebrated this moment as proof that his government is making America strong again in technology and business.

But, that's not the main point of this article, because behind the big celebration and the smiling faces in the photos, there is another side to this story, a side some might overlook if not careful.

AI by nature does not grow without limits. For every data center that is built for their LLMs, for every server farm that is expanded, for every new chip that is made, there is a price being paid beyond cash.

One thing Data centers need the most is huge amounts of electricity. They also need huge amounts of water to stay cool for the most part. The metals used to make powerful computer chips come from the ground and mining these metals damages land, pollutes water and causes a lot of harm to local communities, some of which I've shared in previous articles.

When tech leaders say they will invest billions and billions more every year, it means the use of these resources will keep growing without pausing or slowing down.

That's why I'm not seeing the dinner at the White House only as a happy moment of progress in tech industries but I'm looking at it from the other angle, how deep our world is about to go into using more than what the earth can give back.

It is not only oil or gas or coal that gets used too much, technology also eats up power, land and natural elements. I get so excited when I see new tech gadgets, new AI models, it's a sign that some problems we face today will have solutions but every new AI model uses more electricity than the one before it. Every new data center takes up more space than the one before it. The speed of growth is pushed higher by leaders who believe in being limitless which is good attribute for leadership but not so good since the earth, our environment, nature, it has a limit.

President Trump has been very clear on his decisions to remove rules and open the way for faster AI growth. For him and for many in his team, less restriction means more business, more money and more power for the United States. But when rules are removed it means companies can run faster without thinking about how much energy is burned, how much water is used and how much waste is created in our environment.

The problem is that history has taught us with global warming and climate change of today that what looks like strength today can turn into weakness tomorrow. We may end up having to endure shortages in resources, higher energy costs than what is already a problem or damaged land.

I paid attention to the meeting, it was quite easy to focus only on the huge money numbers and the famous names and their motivation and the fact that big things are about to happen in technology and artificial intelligence, but it is important to ask simple questions.

• Where will the electricity come from to run these AI systems and their big agendas?

• Where will the water come from to cool them?

• Who will clean up the mines when the metals are taken out of the ground?

These questions were not asked at the dinner, but they are questions that matters most for everyone.

AI is usually seen and sold to us as something clean and smart, something that will make life better, I see the appeal, and don't get me wrong, I see the bright side to advancements, but the truth is it has a very heavy footprint. The more it grows, the more it demands. We need to get all these demands checked out in a way that'll ensure sustainability of our environment before we proceed.

I'm not saying we should wait for everything to be perfect before we make technological advancements but we should think of negative effects and the greater good. What good will it be to have a smart ass robot, while living in a world that's much worse than in the 90s?

Just like when societies build more factories or drill more oil wells, AI brings with it a cycle of more use and more waste. A cycle that needs better management than what we're doing today.

Trump and the big tech leaders are pushing this growth to new heights and it's a good thing, but they should also look at the issues it could bring and set precautions or solutions or policies that'll keep things well balanced. Or else it would end up just like the Tariff idea, the average person will suffer an increase in price with rates going crazy.

We may be repeating history again, just watching another path of heavy use being created and once it grows too large, it will be hard to slow it down, I feel like it's already too hard.

World leaders need to be responsible, if people do not question it today, the hidden costs will eventually show up tomorrow in energy bills, empty rivers, polluted land and in communities left to carry the burden. But hey, your AI girlfriend is smart enough to argue with you now, since it has coded emotions, hurray (sarcasm heavily intended please)

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Screenshot of the gathering taken from this website