OpenAI CEO Sam Altman this week attempted to refute a number of accusations about the negative impact of artificial intelligence on the environment and ecology.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman this week attempted to refute a number of accusations about the negative impact of artificial intelligence on the environment and ecology.
At an artificial intelligence summit in India this week, Altman said that concerns about AI using large amounts of water are currently «absolutely false.»
However, he admitted that this was a real problem in the past when «we used evaporative cooling in data centers.»
«We don’t do that now, but you still see things on the Internet like, 'Don’t use ChatGPT, it’s 17 gallons of water per request.' This is absolutely false, it’s complete madness, it has no connection to reality,» Altman assured, as quoted by TechCrunch.
In his opinion, it is now «fair» to worry about energy consumption — but not because of every query made to an AI chatbot, but in general, «because the world is using a lot of AI now.»
As he says, this means the world must «move very quickly to nuclear or wind or solar power.»
When asked if it was true that a single ChatGPT request currently uses the equivalent of 1.5 iPhone battery charges, Altman noted: «That’s not even close to the real figures.»
Altman complained that many of the discussions about ChatGPT’s power consumption are «unfair.»
«But it also takes a lot of energy to teach a person!» Altman decided to present his arguments. «It takes about 20 years of life and all the food you eat during that time before you become smarter.»
As we recently wrote, an OpenAI researcher resigned from the company due to the appearance of advertising in ChatGPT.
Regarding another issue related to AI, Sam Altman acknowledges the impact of artificial intelligence on the labor market, but says that some companies are only using it to cover up inevitable layoffs.
