The Financial Post reports in its Wednesday edition that Microsoft Canada says its data centres for artificial intelligence use will not increase the price of electricity for Canadians or affect their water use. The Post's Naimul Karim writes that AI data centres house supercomputers that can consume over 100 megawatts of electricity, comparable with the annual usage of 100,000 households, according to the International Energy Agency. The centres also need water to cool because they heat up quickly, with an average mid-sized data centre using about 1.4 million litres of water daily, according to Verisk Maplecroft, an England-based risk consultant. Microsoft, which committed to $19-billion in Canada last December to expand its cloud and AI infrastructure, said AI infrastructure brings "enormous opportunity," but it is aware Canadians have "real questions" about affordability, energy and water use, jobs and the impact on local communities. "AI is rapidly changing how organizations operate and the investment in this data centre will help unlock those benefits for Canadians," Microsoft Canada president Matt Milton said on Monday during a tour of one of its data centres in Vaughan, Ont., that is still under construction.