Stop Draining Our Future for AI Entertainment.
The Issue
Every AI-generated video or image feels free. It isn't. Behind each one is a data centre that needs electricity and water to keep its servers from overheating, and in India that water is already running short.
One day of Ai video generation undid a forests work
AI runs on huge computer buildings called data centres. These computers get extremely hot, so they are cooled with water, and much of that water evaporates and is lost. Water is also used at the power plants that make the electricity for them. Not every AI task uses the same amount. A five-second AI video uses about 42,000 times more energy than a simple text question. One study compared it to running a microwave for 8 seconds for text, but for a whole hour for a video. More energy means more water, so these videos are the most expensive to make. Many people also try 3 to 10 times before they get one clip they like, which multiplies the cost. All of this goes into videos made just for fun while citizens in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore faces water distress.
NITI Aayog, the government's own policy think tank, has called India's water situation the worst in its history. India holds 18% of the world's population but only 4% of its freshwater. Nearly 70% of our water is contaminated, and India ranks 120th out of 122 countries on the water quality index. Nearly 600 million Indians face high to extreme water stress, and by 2030 demand is projected to be double the supply. Yet India's data centres reportedly used about 150 billion litres of water in 2025, a figure expected to more than double by 2030.
AI isn't the enemy. It helps in healthcare, education, farming and disaster prediction, and those uses deserve support. But it makes no sense to spend our scarcest resource on endless entertainment content made only for views.
We are not asking for a ban on AI. We are asking the Government of India to:
1. Limit resource-heavy AI generation of purely entertainment media.
2. Require data centres to publicly report their water and energy use to spread the awareness.
3. Even if gradually make it mandatory to use closed loop cooling system.
Water scarcity is not someone else's problem. It decides whether a tap runs, whether a farmer's crop survives, and whether a city stays livable.
Please sign and share this petition so that technology serves people instead of draining them.
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The Issue
Every AI-generated video or image feels free. It isn't. Behind each one is a data centre that needs electricity and water to keep its servers from overheating, and in India that water is already running short.
One day of Ai video generation undid a forests work
AI runs on huge computer buildings called data centres. These computers get extremely hot, so they are cooled with water, and much of that water evaporates and is lost. Water is also used at the power plants that make the electricity for them. Not every AI task uses the same amount. A five-second AI video uses about 42,000 times more energy than a simple text question. One study compared it to running a microwave for 8 seconds for text, but for a whole hour for a video. More energy means more water, so these videos are the most expensive to make. Many people also try 3 to 10 times before they get one clip they like, which multiplies the cost. All of this goes into videos made just for fun while citizens in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore faces water distress.
NITI Aayog, the government's own policy think tank, has called India's water situation the worst in its history. India holds 18% of the world's population but only 4% of its freshwater. Nearly 70% of our water is contaminated, and India ranks 120th out of 122 countries on the water quality index. Nearly 600 million Indians face high to extreme water stress, and by 2030 demand is projected to be double the supply. Yet India's data centres reportedly used about 150 billion litres of water in 2025, a figure expected to more than double by 2030.
AI isn't the enemy. It helps in healthcare, education, farming and disaster prediction, and those uses deserve support. But it makes no sense to spend our scarcest resource on endless entertainment content made only for views.
We are not asking for a ban on AI. We are asking the Government of India to:
1. Limit resource-heavy AI generation of purely entertainment media.
2. Require data centres to publicly report their water and energy use to spread the awareness.
3. Even if gradually make it mandatory to use closed loop cooling system.
Water scarcity is not someone else's problem. It decides whether a tap runs, whether a farmer's crop survives, and whether a city stays livable.
Please sign and share this petition so that technology serves people instead of draining them.
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Petition created on 29 October 2026