Urgent action must be taken to regulate power and water used by data centres to avoid burdening Australian households with higher costs, a study has found.

The nation’s hunger for data centres and AI infrastructure is accelerating as AI workloads increase demands for new compute and storage infrastructure.

As Victoria and NSW chase billions in data centre capital, a report warns households could foot the bill for a dirtier, costlier grid.

Urgent action must be taken to regulate power and water used by data centres to avoid burdening Australian households with higher costs, a study has found.

Don’t panic about AI data centres and water – it’s energy we should worry about

"That extra ‘please’ you put there can make a huge difference,” says one of the report's authors.

UN researchers warn that AI will double data centre power and water consumption by 2030, straining environmental resources.

Artificial Intelligence is not only responsible for worrying amounts of earth-warming greenhouse gases: the technology's environmental footprint is also expanding at a pace that…