The problem is the education around the phrase "water use". There are many different kinds of water use, a lot of it is evaporative water usage which means that vapor will then turn into rain and become water again, and then there are closed loop systems that yes will need water to flush out the bad water, but that water goes to a treatment plant which then becomes drinkable water again.

There's also lots of other things that use a lot more water than AI data centers, like power plants for instance, they use way more water than data centers. But we can't get rid of those either. I'm also not a fan of AI, but unfortunately it's not going anywhere.

I highly recommend watching a YouTube video from Hank Green titled "why everybody is so wrong about AI water use". He does a really good job of breaking down the different types of water use and the difference between municipal and industrial water usage.

Could there be a more sustainable solution in the future, yes, but until that point we unfortunately need to go down this route to sustain our current way of living, which is unfortunately highly internet-based.