Sam Altman would like remind you that humans use a lot of energy, too

Source: TechCrunch

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman addressed concerns about AI’s environmental impact while speaking at an event hosted by The Indian Express (watch the interview on YouTube).

Altman’s Remarks on Water Usage

• Altman, who was in India for a major AI summit (TechCrunch coverage), called claims that AI consumes large amounts of water “totally fake.”
• He explained that earlier data‑center designs used evaporative cooling, which required water, but modern facilities no longer rely on that method.
• “Don’t use ChatGPT, it’s 17 gallons of water for each query” – Altman said this is “completely untrue, totally insane, no connection to reality.”

Energy Consumption Concerns

• Altman acknowledged that the total energy consumption of AI is a legitimate concern: “the world is now using so much AI.”
• He urged a rapid shift toward low‑carbon power sources such as nuclear, wind, and solar.

Industry Context

• There is no legal requirement for tech companies to disclose their energy or water usage. Independent researchers are attempting to study these metrics (NPR investigation).
• Data centers have been linked to rising electricity prices (TechCrunch article).

Comparison with Human Energy Use

• When asked whether a single ChatGPT query uses the equivalent of 1.5 iPhone battery charges (a claim cited by Bill Gates), Altman responded that “there’s no way it’s anything close to that much.”
• He argued that many discussions focus unfairly on the energy required to train AI models, ignoring the energy humans expend over a lifetime to acquire knowledge.

“It takes like 20 years of life and all of the food you eat during that time before you get smart… It took the evolution of billions of people to produce you.” – Sam Altman

• Altman suggested the more relevant comparison is inference: the energy needed for a trained model to answer a question versus the energy a human uses to answer the same question. He believes AI may already be comparable or more efficient on that basis.

Where to Find the Full Interview

The conversation about water and energy usage begins at around 26:35 in the interview video linked above.