Delete old emails and pictures as data centres require vast amounts of water to cool their systems.

— UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The absurd guidance is part of a list published by the UK government to mitigate the severe drought affecting England, alongside useless classics (“take shorter showers”) and other nonsense (“use water from the kitchen to water your plants”).

As David Gerard pointed out, the document makes no mention of the inefficiencies of (privatized) water companies nor the thirsty data centers focused on artificial intelligence. (The great irony is that the suggestion to delete emails to save water may have come from generative AI. Is this how AI will end humanity?)