u/Locke357

>Two 14-year-old boys in Edmonton are accused of using artificial intelligence to make sexualized images of their classmates. Several girls – potentially more than 10 – were targeted, according to police.

>“I think there is a misconception that because it’s AI it’s not real, that the impact is not significant….The impact is just as significant as if these pictures were taken by these kids and shared and then leaked,” said lead investigator Const. Stephanie Bosch.

>“The trust is broken now. Control is taken away from them. You can start to think about how that would impact a teenager, especially considering it impacts how their peers may view them. They have done nothing wrong.”

>The collision between worsening drought and the AI boom is raising alarms among environmental experts, utility operators, and local governments as hyperscale data centers consume hundreds of millions of gallons of water to cool the servers powering chatbots, image generators, and AI search tools.

>According to market research firm Mordor Intelligence, nearly 1 trillion liters of water were consumed by AI data centers in 2025. That amounts to roughly 264 billion gallons for the year, or the annual water usage of 1.8 million Americans. AI data centers are currently consuming 550 million gallons of water per day. That’s roughly the same rate of water consumption as the entirety of the world’s bottled water industry. 

>The world’s largest technology companies are racing to build massive AI-focused data centers filled with specialized processors that generate extraordinary amounts of heat. To prevent overheating, many facilities rely on evaporative cooling systems that consume vast quantities of water.

>Researchers estimate that a single large data center can use millions of gallons of water every day under certain operating conditions.

>Farmers are coping with drought conditions, shrinking water supplies, and rising operating costs. Families are dealing with years of stubborn inflation, higher utility bills, and increasingly expensive necessities. Local governments are wrestling with the challenge of expanding power grids and water systems fast enough to accommodate a technology boom unlike anything seen before.

>When security footage at a local McDonald's captured a man trying to get a young, unaccompanied girl to leave with him, Jacksonville Beach police relied on software that flagged Robert Dillon as a 93 per cent match for the suspect.

>In reality, Dillon lived in Fort Myers, more than 300 miles away, and told investigators he had never visited Jacksonville Beach in his life, leading prosecutors to drop all charges and dismiss the case following the August 2024 incident.

>'Mr Dillon was arrested at his home in front of his wife. He was accused of attempting to lure a child, a charge carrying devastating social stigma and permanent reputational destruction. He was subjected to months of criminal prosecution and publicly branded with a mugshot that remains accessible online long after the charges were dropped.'

>Highlighting the ongoing impact on his daily life, the lawsuit notes that 'he no longer feels comfortable being friendly to children. No law enforcement agency has ever apologised or acknowledged the error.'

>Just 10 percent of Americans say they're thrilled about the future of AI, a Pew poll found in March; that same month, some 80 percent of registered U.S. voters in an NBC poll said neither Democrats nor Republicans are doing a good job on the AI front.

>That number also appears in an April survey of white-collar workers: 80 percent are straight-up refusing to use AI even when it's mandated. In the last 30 days, 54 percent of workers reported bypassing company AI tools and completing jobs themselves.

>Data center protests, fueled by the 70 percent of Americans who say they don't want data centers near them, are only likely to grow going forward — especially now that they are producing tangible results.