Although the temples in Paris for the 2024 Olympics may be sweltering, the pool where Olympic swimmers, divers and water polo players compete still needs to be warmed up. But the Paris Games aren't heating water in a traditional way – they're using it excessive heat from the AI servers to heat the pool.
In Saint-Denis, France, the American data company, Equinix, operates a massive AI training site called PA10. AI data centers are known to emit massive amounts of heat and power due to their sheer numbers necessary servers to train AI language models for popular applications such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Meta's Llama.
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In the process of powering up the servers, the PA10 is filled with excess heat and energy, which is then piped into a local energy system run by Equinix, which sends the heat to the Olympic Aquatic Center to help heat the the pool.
Excess energy is also sent to around 600 homes in the Saint-Denis district. Equinix said Wires that it expects the center to produce enough energy to heat 1,000 homes when it reaches full capacity.
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It's a mutually beneficial system as Equinix can spend less money and energy cooling the PA10 as excess heat is being exported elsewhere.
The 2024 Olympic Games will end on August 11.