Overview (Pavel and Francis)
These slides give an overview of the course, and what we hope to do.Your first writing task (by Sunday 11 October)
One question, three kinds of writing: do data centres use too much water? Read all three.
- An encyclopedia summarises what is known: the Water usage section of Environmental impact of AI on English Wikipedia. There is a Czech article as well, Dopady umělé inteligence na životní prostředí, which cites quite different sources — worth a look if you read Czech.
- An academic paper argues a case, hedged and cited: Mytton, D. (2021). Data centre water consumption. npj Clean Water, 4, Article 11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41545-021-00101-w (open access, six pages)
- A blog post argues a case too, but by its own rules: Masley, A. (2025, October 11). The AI water issue is fake. (Updated April 2026.)
Then write roughly 400–500 words — three paragraphs:
- What does each one claim? State it in one sentence each.
- Where do they differ? Is the disagreement about the facts, or about what the facts mean?
- Which did you trust most, and why? Name what convinced you: evidence, sources, hedging, tone.
Post it on Moodle by Sunday 11 October and bring it to class on 13 October, where we will discuss what you found. Your own words, please: no generative AI. Cite anything else you read. This one is not graded — it is so that we can see how you write, and so that you get some practice in reading like a writer.
And something lighter
