OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently addressed concerns about the environmental impact of artificial intelligence. Speaking at an event in India, he dismissed widespread claims about AI’s water usage as completely false.
Altman specifically refuted internet rumors that a single ChatGPT query consumes vast amounts of water, calling such statements “totally insane” and having “no connection to reality.” He acknowledged that water use was a real issue in the past with older data center cooling methods, but stated that is no longer the case with modern systems.
However, Altman did express that concerns about AI’s total energy consumption are valid. He emphasized that as global AI usage grows, the world must accelerate its transition to cleaner energy sources like nuclear, wind, and solar power.
The interviewer referenced a comparison that a single ChatGPT query uses energy equivalent to 1.5 iPhone battery charges. Altman firmly rejected this, stating there is “no way it’s anything close to that much.”
He also argued that many discussions about AI energy use are unfair, particularly those comparing the energy cost of training an AI model to the cost of a single human query. Altman offered a different perspective, noting the immense energy required to train a human over a lifetime and through evolution. He suggested the fair comparison is the energy used by a trained AI to answer a question versus a trained human answering the same question. By that measure, he believes AI has likely already become more energy efficient.
Currently, there is no legal mandate for technology companies to disclose their energy and water usage, leading scientists to conduct independent studies. Data centers have been linked to rising electricity prices in some discussions.