Empire of AI is wildly misleading about AI water use

Yeah. It's unfortunate that they seem so intent on digging in their heels about this one issue of water use. Precisely because AI is so important, we should want to make sure we're clear on the facts and have the right context for them! And the larger point that AI is likely to consolidate power in the hands of increasingly few people and corporations is well worth making (although, that story can be told for most critical technologies , from the steam engine to the telegraph to the transistor, and I don't think Hao's framing of Empire/Colonialism is really the right way to look at it at all). I think there are plenty of books to be written about the social impact of AI from a more balanced, empirical, less ideological perspective.