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Every year in the United States, thousands of families face a devastating reality: Their child has a rare disease, but they wont know it until its too late for effective intervention. Thirty percent of children with rare diseases dont live to see their fifth birthday. For too long, weve relied on limited newborn screening panels that vary from state to state, waiting until symptoms are severe and irreversible before acting. This approach is not only medically irresponsible, its fiscally unsound.Experts estimate rare diseases cost the U.S. healthcare system $1 trillion annually. Beyond the cost to our healthcare system, families too often find themselves in the position of becoming medical experts just to care for their child, taking them away from work and other loved ones, creating an immeasurable burden on the entire family. As professionals who have spent their entire careers at the intersection of science, policy, and innovation, we believe we are standing at a pivotal moment where the status quo is no longer acceptable. We must approach diagnosing rare diseases at birth differently via genome sequencing. The science has never been more promising. The economics have never made more sense. And the human cost of inaction has never been higher. EARLY DIAGNOSIS, EARLY TREATMENT Earlier diagnosis of rare diseases is not a luxuryit is a moral and financial imperative for modernizing our health system. Take the case of KJ, a baby treated at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia. Born with a deadly genetic disease called CPS1 deficiency, KJ was diagnosed early and became one of the first children to receive gene therapy tailored to his specific mutation. That treatment didnt just save his life. It also likely saved millions in long-term healthcare, special education, and disability costs that the system would otherwise have shouldered for decades.This is the future we should be building toward: one where precision medicine is equitable, made possible by genomic newborn screening and next-generation gene therapies. One that prevents suffering and reduces the strain on public and private healthcare dollars alike. We already screen every baby born in the U.S. for certain conditions. But our current panel only scratches the surface. Thousands of serious, treatable genetic disorders go undetected every day because we havent modernized our approach. We can change that. We believe in a future where a single, affordable, and actionable genomic newborn screening at birth can identify hundreds of early-onset genetic conditions with established therapies and treatments. This allows for timely intervention that not only saves our healthcare system valuable resources but, most importantly, spares families unnecessary suffering. Lets be clear: Earlier diagnosis leads to better outcomes. Children with spinal muscular atrophy, for example, can now receive treatment in the first weeks of life that dramatically improves survival and quality of life. Thats only possible when they are diagnosed before symptoms begin. Delay by even a few months leads to expensive and tragic outcomes. POLICY CHANGES We need leadership to ensure genomic newborn screening is available to every child. I applaud Florida State Representative Adam Anderson for championing groundbreaking initiatives in newborn screening by sponsoring the Sunshine Genetics Act (HB 907), which is establishing free, opt-in whole genome sequencing for newborns in Florida. Public-private partnerships, federal investment in data infrastructure, and updates to newborn screening policy can all move the needle without increasing the deficit. Were already seeing progress with the recently announced BEACONS initiativethe countrys first multi-state genomic newborn screening initiative. Funded by a $14.4 million award from the National Institutes of HealthCommon Fund Venture Program, this program is laying the early groundwork for integration of whole genome sequencing into existing state newborn screening systems by examining the feasibility of incorporating genomic newborn screening into the public health system. BEACONS is just the beginning of a future where we envision a national standard for genomic sequencing at birth, grounded in early intervention, which can transform the lifetime health of the next generation of Americans. This transformation is about unleashing the power of American innovation in partnership with the families, clinicians, and researchers who are working tirelessly to transform care. Its about enabling the next generation of gene editing and cell therapy technologies to succeed by ensuring we catch the diseases they can treat early enough to make a difference. Importantly, we have the support of policymakers on both sides of the political aisle. Representatives Mike Simpson (R-ID), Kelly Morrison (D-MN), Nick Langworthy (R-NY) and Kim Schrier (D-WA) reintroduced the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Reauthorization Act. This legislation was moved forward in September to the full committee. Senators Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) continue to champion the issue on the Senate side. The bipartisan bill will renew and strengthen existing newborn screening programs. This bill is the first step. The next step is ensuring all newborns have access to the latest genetic tests so we can screen for the full range of treatable rare diseases and genetic conditions. The Genomic Answers for Children’s Health Act, which is awaiting introduction in Congress, will be crucial to these efforts as this legislation would further increase access to critical genomic testing. CHILDHOOD HEALTH MUST BE ADDRESSED The current drumbeat of the U.S. government is driven by calls for efficiency and a childhood health crisis that must be addressed. Republican lawmakers have long championed policies that are fiscally responsible, pro-innovation, and pro-life. Supporting expanded early diagnosis of rare diseases is squarely aligned with these values. It reduces long-term entitlement spending, encourages market-bsed innovation, and gives every child a fighting chance at life. As policymakers debate the future of healthcare and innovation in America, we urge them to look closely at the rare disease community. What theyll find is not just a population in need, but a blueprint for smarter, more sustainable, and more compassionate healthcare. The tools are here. The evidence is clear. The time is now. Britt Johnson, PhD, FACMG is the SVP of medical affairs at GeneDx. Katherine Stueland is the CEO of GeneDx.
Category:
E-Commerce
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang met separately with President Donald Trump and Republican senators Wednesday as tech executives work to secure favorable federal policies for the artificial intelligence industry, including the limited sale of Nvidia’s highly valued computer chips to U.S. rivals like China. Huang’s closed-door meeting with Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee came at a moment of intensifying lobbying, soaring investments, and audacious forecasts by major tech companies about AIs potential transformative effects. Huang is among the Silicon Valley executives who warn that any restrictions on the technology will halt its advancement despite mounting concerns among policymakers and the public about AI’s potential pitfalls or the ways foreign rivals like China may use American hardware. Ive said repeatedly that we support export control, that we should ensure that American companies have the best and the most and first, Huang told reporters before his meeting on Capitol Hill. He added that he shared concerns about selling AI chips to China but believed that restrictions haven’t slowed Chinese advancement in the AI race. We need to be able to compete around the world. The one thing we cant do is we cant degrade the chips that we sell to China. They wont accept that. Theres a reason why they wouldnt accept that, and so we should offer the most competitive chips we can to the Chinese market, Huang said. Huang also said hed met with Trump earlier Wednesday and discussed export controls for Nvidias chips. Huang added that he wished the president a happy holidays. The Trump administration in May reversed Biden-era restrictions that had prevented Nvidia and other chipmakers from exporting their chips to a wide range of countries. The White House in August also announced an unusual deal that would allow Nvidia and another U.S. chipmaker, Advanced Micro Devices, to sell their chips in the Chinese market but would require the U.S. government to take a 15% cut of the sales. The deal divided lawmakers on Capitol Hill, where there is broad support for controls on AI exports. A growing battle in Congress Members of Congress have generally considered the sale of high-end AI chips to China to be a national security risk. China is the main competitor to the U.S. in the race to develop artificial superintelligence. Lawmakers have also proposed a flurry of bills this year to regulate AI’s impact on dozens of industries, though none have become law. Most Republican senators who attended the meeting with Huang declined to discuss their conversations. But a handful described the meeting as positive and productive. For me, this is a very healthy discussion to have, said Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican. Rounds said lawmakers had a general discussion” with Huang about the state of AI and said senators were still open to a wide range of policies. Asked whether he believed Nvidia’s interests and goals were fully aligned with U.S. national security, Rounds replied: They currently do not sell chips in China. And they understand that theyre an American company. They want to be able to compete around the rest of the world. Theyd love to some time be able to compete in China again, but they recognize that export controls are important as well for our own national security.” Other Republicans were more skeptical of Huang’s message. Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican who sits on the upper chamber’s Banking Committee, said he skipped the meeting entirely. I dont consider him to be an objective, credible source about whether we should be selling chips to China, Kennedy told reporters. Hes got more money than the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, and he wants even more. I dont blame you for that, but if Im looking for someone to give me objective advice about whether we should make our technology available to China, he’s not it.” Some Democrats, shut out from the meeting altogether, expressed frustration at Huang’s presence on Capitol Hill. Evidently, he wants to go lobby Republicans in secret rather than explain himself, said Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee. Warren added that she wanted Huang to testify in a public congressional hearing and answer questions about why his company wants to favor Chinese manufacturers over American companies that need access to those high-quality chips. Matt Brown, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
The bill that brought the government back online last month ended the shutdown with an unexpected catch that could crush an entire industry. A hidden provision slipped into the bill just before it passed has nothing to do with the federal shutdown and everything to do with hempthe version of cannabis thats grown as a food, a fiber, and, in recent years, as the active ingredient in an array of sodas, gummies, and snacks crafted to give people an alcohol-free buzz. Hemp is legally defined as a variety of the plant Cannabis sativa L. that contains less than .3 percent of the most common form of THC, the psychoactive compound from marijuana that gets people high. In 2018, a multiyear agricultural law known as a farm bill created that distinction, removing hempthe very low-THC version of cannabisfrom being lumped in with the controlled substance marijuana. That small shift gave birth to a booming industry of hemp-based THC drinks and snacks, which quickly hit store shelves even where recreational cannabis is illegal. Now, a provision in the federal spending bill will limit the amount of THC in a beverage or edible to .4 milligramswell below the 10 milligrams promised by some of the hemp-based drinks found on gas station shelves. While hemp contains much less THC than the high concentrations present in marijuana plants, hemp-based THC can still give people a dose-dependent buzz when ingested. Businesses interested in the THC loophole also began converting CBD, a nonintoxicating compound in hemp, into other forms of THC that were not subject to the same restrictions and bottling it up for customers. The combination of THCs recreational appeal and the ease with which businesses could now sell and ship hemp-based THC products inspired a lot of entrepreneurs to jump into the recreational side of the hemp industry. Now that part of the industry is poised to be regulated out of existence over worries that weed by another name was suddenly everywhere. Whether a looming ban on hemp-derived THC drinks is common sense or a terrible misstep depends on your perspectiveand your business interests. Beyond booze With drinking on the decline as the health impacts of alcohol come to light, a wave of new companies view THC drinks as a future proof, zero-proof alternative to booze. That includes breweries large and small, which began experimenting with THC brews to offset their losses as the craft beer boom fizzles. Xander Shepherd, who cofounded Artet, a company that sells THC-infused spritzes and aperitifs, says that he and his cousin went into business to bring THC to our familys Thanksgiving dinners. On a deeper level, we were motivated by the belief that THC has an important role to play in the progression of cocktail culture, Shepherd told Fast Company. Our stated mission is to prove to the world that infused drinks belong on the bar cart, or the dining room table, or anywhere else you might find a great bottle of wine or a fine spirit. Because the farm bills hemp rules appeared to be settled law at the federal level, the regulatory environment looked safe enough for a huge variety of companies to start producing and selling THC-based candies, canned drinks, vape oils, and other products. In the face of an uncertain future, Shepherd says Artet hopes to continue to open peoples minds and palates about its trendy THC sippables. The THC trends detractors paint a different picture. Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell quietly pushed through the regulatory change to purposefully undo a loophole he helped create. McConnell emphasized that the change wouldnt affect the industrial hemp industry, which grows the plant for products like biofuels, fiber, and paper, and was designed to rein in the rise of intoxicating and synthetic THC products. I am proud to have championed this language that keeps these products out of the hands of children, secures the future of regulated hemp businesses, and keeps our promise to American farmers and law enforcement by clarifying the intention in the 2018 Farm Bill, McConnell said of the bill. An uncertain future States are also wrestling with the issue, weighing their worries against the success of a young industry thats creating jobs and pulling in substantial tax revenue. Prior to the bills passage, a group of attorneys general from almost 40 states wrote Congress with their concerns about the proliferation of widely available THC products, cautioning that convenience stores and gas stations are stocked to the brim with psychoactive THC products. For Artet, the game plan is to continue being a good steward in an industry thats increasingly attracting scrutiny. We feel that providing a good example for consumers and legislators is one way we can help undo this potentially looming prohibition, Shepherd said, noting that many brands in the space work hard to keep their THC products safe. Artets bottles come with a special child-resistant cap and a shot glass for pouring precise servings, two measures it takes to keep customers safe and sipping as intended. Ultimately, those bad actors are wildly outnumbered by business owners and brands who are trying to do things the right way, even when it makes the job harder, Shepherd said. We do these things because we believe theyre the right thing to do, and were not alone in our efforts.
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E-Commerce
The world of popular psychological ideas, which is largely the self-help industry, is not short of contradictions. For instance, it simultaneously promotes the benefits of emotional intelligence (the ability to empathize with others and engage in strategic impression management) and authenticity (the tendency to express what you really feel and think without much consideration for others opinions). It also frequently celebrates self-acceptance and constant self-improvement (love yourself as you are but also become the best version of yourself), mindfulness and relentless ambition (stay in the zone, present and serene while hustling aggressively toward big goals), and even self-awareness and self-belief, which pull in opposite psychological directions. Self-awareness requires confronting your flaws, limitations, and blind spots with brutal honesty; self-belief requires ignoring at least some of that evidence to maintain high-levels of confidence, optimism, and drive. One asks you to see yourself clearly; the other asks you to believe in yourself despite what you see. Yet this isnt a logical flaw so much as a reflection of our human tendency to categorize things as either fully good or fully bad, when in reality most psychological qualities operate in a yinyang balance. As Aristotle argued in his doctrine of the golden mean, virtue itself sits at the midpoint between two vices courage between cowardice and recklessness, generosity between stinginess and extravagance, confidence between timidity and hubris. In other words, even the qualities we most admire become dysfunctional when taken too far, and even the traits we distrust can be valuable in moderation. Human behavior functions the same way: most psychological strengths arent inherently good or bad, theyre dose-dependent. In line, emotional intelligence isnt inherently superior to authenticity; self-awareness isnt automatically better than self-belief. They each contain the seed of their opposite, and their value depends on the situation, dosage, and context. In fact, one of the most established findings in personality and organizational psychology is the too-much-of-a-good-thing effect: virtually any trait or competency becomes dysfunctional when taken to an extreme. Confidence turns into arrogance, humility into self-doubt, authenticity into impulsive oversharing, and EQ into manipulative charm. Every strength has a shadow side, every virtue has a saturation point, and every desirable trait comes bundled with its own trade-offs. The goal, then, is not to pick one pure ideal authenticity or impression management, self-awareness or self-belief but to learn to calibrate them, blending them in ways that make us more effective, rather than more extreme. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/tcp-photo-syndey-16X9.jpg","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/tcp-photo-syndey-1x1-2.jpg","eyebrow":"","headline":"Get more insights from Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic","dek":"Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is a professor of organizational psychology at UCL and Columbia University, and the co-founder of DeeperSignals. He has authored 15 books and over 250 scientific articles on the psychology of talent, leadership, AI, and entrepreneurship. ","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"Learn More","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/drtomas.com\/intro\/","theme":{"bg":"#2b2d30","text":"#ffffff","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#3b3f46","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91424798,"imageMobileId":91424800,"shareable":false,"slug":""}} Hidden drawbacks At times, even traits that seem to have no downside, such as self-awareness, come with hidden drawbacks. Intuitively, one would assume that we are generally better off knowing ourselves, understanding how others perceive us, and being aware of our strengths, limitations, biases, and blind spots. After all, entire leadership models, coaching programs, and HR philosophies rest on the idea that insight precedes improvement. If you dont know whats broken, how can you fix it? If you dont know how others experience you, how can you expect to lead them? And if you dont understand your own motives, how can you trust your decisions? To be sure, this intuition is backed by a substantial body of research. For example, many scientific studies show that: 1) Self-awareness predicts better job performance. Employees with higher self-insight (as measured through multisource or 360-degree feedback assessments) tend to show greater effectiveness at work, including when they are managers and leaders.2) Self-awareness enhances leadership effectiveness. Leaders who are more attuned to their strengths and weaknesses receive higher performance ratings and foster better team climates (note, however, that underestimating your skills and leadership talents is also linked to higher leadership effectiveness compared to people who overestimate themselves).3) Self-awareness improves interpersonal relationships. Individuals who understand their emotional patterns and their impact on others display higher empathy and lower conflict. Its simple: if you know how you impact others, which equates to knowing how others see you, it will be easier for you to adjust your behavior to make a desired impact on others (this is what David Brent and Michael Scott fail to do, which makes The Office great comedy value but their characters an absolute nightmare archetype of a boss). The value of selective ignorance However, there are also well-documented benefits to poor self-awareness or, more precisely, benefits to selective ignorance, including being unaware of your limitations or unjustifiably pleased with yourself. Think of people with the arrogance or confidence of Kanye West, Cristiano Ronaldo, or Muhammad Ali but without the talents to back it up! Consider the following findings: First, people with inflated self-views tend to be more resilient and less affected by stress, being able to bounce back faster and stronger from setbacks. Along the same lines, decades of research on positive illusions shows that overly optimistic people cope better with adversity and maintain higher motivation. Second, self-deception can make individuals more persuasive: people who genuinely believe they are more competent than they are often appear more confident and convincing to others. If you can fool yourself, you are much more likely to fool others, since you dont even have to pretend or lie. Third, low self-awareness can fuel ambition. Many entrepreneurs, athletes, and leaders overestimate their odds of success and this unrealistic optimism propels them to attempt things that a more accurate self-assessment would quickly veto. The worlds innovations are not driven by people with perfectly calibrated self-views, but by those who believed they could fly even when the evidence suggested otherwise. All of which is to say: the self-help promise of clean, linear psychological virtues overlooks how messy human functioning actually is. A bit like nutrition advice that alternates between demonizing carbs, demonizing fat, and demonizing sugar (sometimes all three, and at times none), the self-help world tends to spotlight traits in isolation, ignoring the context in which they operate. Authenticity is wonderful until its not. Confidence is powerful until it becomes delusion. Empathy is admirable until it becomes people-pleasing. Even mindfulness has a dark side when it becomes an excuse for avoidance or emotional disengagement. A tool box A more realistic (and scientifically grounded) way of thinking about psychological qualities is to view them as tools in a repertoire. A hammer is useful, but not if you treat every situation as a nail. Emotional intelligence is helpful, but not if it turns into strategic manipulation. Authenticity is refreshing, but not if it comes at the expense of tact, professionalism, or prosocial self-regulation. And self-awareness is enlightening, but not if it becomes rumination, self-criticism, or paralysis by analysis. The true art of psychological competence, especially in leadership, is not picking the right trait but deploying the right trait at the right time. Its knowing when to believe in yourself fiercely, and when to question your assumptions. When to be transparent, and when to filter. When to push ruthlessly, and when to pause reflectively. When to take a risk, and when to seek feedback. Most importantly, its recognizing that every psychological asset becomes a liability when unbounded, and every liability contains the seed of an asset when calibrated properly. If the self-help industry were more honest, it would sound far less like a collection of tidy commandments and far more like a user manual for a complex operating system: one with settings, thresholds, sliders, and context-specific modes. But it depends will never be a bestseller, and everything in moderation is hardly a motivational tagline. So instead, we get a contradictory buffet of directives be yourself, but improve yourself; relax, but hustle; speak your truth, but avoid offending anyone; know your flaws, but never doubt your greatness. The irony, of course, is that mature psychological functioning lies precisely in reconciling these tensions. Not by choosing sides, but by developing the agility to move fluidly between them. In the end, the real contradiction is not in the advice we receive, but in our desire for simple answers to complex questions. Human nature is too nuanced for single-variable solutions, and the qualities that make us effective are rarely pure. They are contradictions held in balance (the yin and yang of psychological functioning) and the leaders who thrive are those who learn to navigate this paradox elegantly, not dogmatically. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/tcp-photo-syndey-16X9.jpg","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/tcp-photo-syndey-1x1-2.jpg","eyebrow":"","headline":"Get more insights from Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic","dek":"Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is a professor of organizational psychology at UCL and Columbia University, and the co-founder of DeeperSignals. He has authored 15 books and over 250 scientific articles on the psychology of talent, leadership, AI, and entrepreneurship. 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E-Commerce
The rise of artificial intelligence is transforming every industry, but it also creates enormous demand for digital infrastructure and natural resources. Data centers, the engines of this transformation, consume vast amounts of water and energy. A single hyperscale data center consumes up to 5 million gallons of potable water every day. In Phoenix, 58 centers together demand more than 170 million gallons daily, enough to serve up to several hundred thousand households. This is the internets hidden water footprint, amplified by AI, cloud computing, and data-heavy services. Training a single large AI model in a Microsoft data center can require about 185,000 gallons of clean water. By 2027, AI-related data centers could consume 1.7 trillion gallons annually, nearly matching the domestic water use of some developed nations. Most data centers still rely on evaporative cooling, which consumes massive volumes and discharges chemical-laden wastewater. The challenge is not only scale but also geography. More than 40% of U.S. data centers are located in water-stressed basins. AIs rapid growth demands a new approach. Water cannot become the bottleneck to the next chapter of human progress. FROM COMMUNITY PUSHBACK TO BUSINESS RISK Public concerns are already reshaping the industry: Oregon: Google faced lawsuits over water secrecy. Indiana: Amazons Project Rainier is under state scrutiny for allegedly draining wells while pumping millions of gallons per hour. Georgia: Families near Metas complex report unusable wells. Virginia: Utilities now require new data centers to secure their own water sources or adopt closed-loop systems. Investors are paying attention. Water use per AI training cycle is emerging as a core accountability metric, alongside carbon intensity. Communities are responding with moratorium requests. THE CALL FOR INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP The industry can no longer rely on incomplete data, inconsistent reporting, or distant offsetting schemes. Declaring a water positive target by some far-off date is no longer enough. Communities demand tangible action where the water is drawn. The technology exists today. Around the world, data center and cloud providers are proving that sustainability and scalability can coexist, with each breakthrough setting a new benchmark for what is possible. Microsoft has deployed closed-loop systems in Arizona and Wisconsin, saving up to 125 million liters per site. Google used reclaimed wastewater at 22% of its campuses as of 2023. Amazon is building new centers with closed-loop treatment, recycling every drop used for cooling. NVIDIA is partnering with Singtel to deploy next-generation liquid and immersion cooling systems designed to achieve industry-leading water efficiency in Singapores new AI data centers. The opportunity is clear: Water must be engineered into AIs growth, not treated as an afterthought. THE TECHNOLOGIES DRIVING SUSTAINABLE AI Building a sustainable digital future requires bold adoption of both proven and emerging solutions that reduce environmental impact while enabling continued growth. The tools already exist. What we need now is the conviction to scale them. Smarter cooling technologies Closed-loop and liquid cooling: Advanced systems can reduce water consumption by as much as 30 to 50% while maintaining the high-performance environment that AI workloads demand. Water recycling at scale: Leaders like AWS plan to deploy treated wastewater at more than 120 data centers by 2030, setting a new baseline for responsible water use. AI-Driven optimization Smart workload scheduling: By applying AI to manage computing loads, operators have shown they can cut water consumption by a third without increasing carbon emissions. This type of efficiency breakthrough makes sustainability scalable. Alternative water sources Seawater desalination: In coastal or arid regions, seawater offers an abundant alternative. Advanced desalination technologies convert it into a reliable cooling supply without burdening municipal drinking water systems. High-value water reuse: Modern treatment technologies can transform sewage, brackish groundwater, and industrial effluent into high-quality process water, eliminating dependence on limited freshwater supplies. This is our approach at Gradiant, where our feedwater-agnostic treatment systems enable data centers to operate using seawater, wastewater, or other unconventional sources, reducing dependence on fresh supplies. By recycling blowdown and cooling tower reject, we achieve zero-liquid discharge and drastically reduce freshwater withdrawals, even in the largest hyperscale AI facilities. With the right technologies, sustainable AI data center growth can align with both environmental and business imperatives. AIS GROWTH HINGES ON WATER The next era of AI will be defined by those who treat water as critical infrastructure. Companies that lead will gain faster permitting, avoid regulatory shocks and operational disruptions, and build lasting trust with the communities that host them. Water is not compliance. It is resilience. It is innovation. It is license to operate. AIs future depends on leadership that recognizes water as the defining resource of our digital age, one that must be safeguarded through innovation rather than depletion. Advanced recycling, seawater desalination, and next-generation water treatment will be the pillars of responsible growth. The companies that act now will determine not only how AI grows but whether it grows responsibly, securing both digital progress and planetary resilience. Prakash Govindan and Anurag Bajpayee are the cofounders of Gradiant.
Category:
E-Commerce
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