{"id":3095339,"date":"2026-02-21T13:38:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T21:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=3095339"},"modified":"2026-02-23T11:48:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:48:51","slug":"sam-altman-would-like-remind-you-that-humans-use-a-lot-of-energy-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/02\/21\/sam-altman-would-like-remind-you-that-humans-use-a-lot-of-energy-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Altman would like to remind you that humans use a lot of energy, too"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman addressed concerns about AI\u2019s environmental impact this week while speaking at an event hosted by The Indian Express<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

For one thing, Altman \u2014 who was in India for a major AI summit<\/a> \u2014 said concerns about AI\u2019s water usage are \u201ctotally fake,\u201d though he acknowledged it was a real issue when \u201cwe used to do evaporative cooling in data centers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cNow that we don\u2019t do that, you see these things on the internet where, \u2018Don\u2019t use ChatGPT, it\u2019s 17 gallons of water for each query\u2019 or whatever,\u201d Altman said. \u201cThis is completely untrue, totally insane, no connection to reality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

He added that it\u2019s \u201cfair\u201d to be concerned about \u201cthe energy consumption \u2014 not per query, but in total, because the world is now using so much AI.\u201d In his view, this means the world needs to \u201cmove towards nuclear or wind and solar very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

There\u2019s no legal requirement for tech companies to disclose how much energy and water they use, so scientists have been trying to study it independently<\/a>. Data centers have also been connected to rising electricity prices<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Citing a previous conversation with Bill Gates, the interviewer asked whether it\u2019s accurate to say a single ChatGPT query currently uses the equivalent of 1.5 iPhone battery charges, to which Altman replied, \u201cThere\u2019s no way it\u2019s anything close to that much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Altman also complained that many discussions about ChatGPT\u2019s energy usage are \u201cunfair,\u201d especially when they focus on \u201chow much energy it takes to train an AI model, relative to how much it costs a human to do one inference query.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut it also takes a lot of energy to train a human,\u201d Altman said. \u201cIt takes like 20 years of life and all of the food you eat during that time before you get smart. And not only that, it took the very widespread evolution of the 100 billion people that have ever lived and learned not to get eaten by predators and learned how to figure out science and whatever, to produce you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

So in his view, the fair comparison is, \u201cIf you ask ChatGPT a question, how much energy does it take once its model is trained to answer that question versus a human? And probably, AI has already caught up on an energy efficiency basis, measured that way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

You can watch the full interview below. The conversation about water and energy usage begins at around 26:35.<\/p>\n\n

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