Sam Altman would really like remind you that people use quite a lot of power, too

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman addressed considerations about AI’s environmental impression this week whereas speaking at an event hosted by The Indian Express.

For one factor, Altman — who was in India for a significant AI summit — mentioned considerations about AI’s water utilization are “completely faux,” although he acknowledged it was an actual difficulty when “we used to do evaporative cooling in information facilities.”

“Now that we don’t try this, you see this stuff on the web the place, ‘Don’t use ChatGPT, it’s 17 gallons of water for every question’ or no matter,” Altman mentioned. “That is fully unfaithful, completely insane, no connection to actuality.”

He added that it’s “truthful” to be involved about “the power consumption — not per question, however in complete, as a result of the world is now utilizing a lot AI.” In his view, this implies the world must “transfer in direction of nuclear or wind and photo voltaic in a short time.”

There’s no authorized requirement for tech firms to reveal how a lot power and water they use, so scientists have been trying to study it independently. Information facilities have additionally been linked to rising electrical energy costs.

Citing a earlier dialog with Invoice Gates, the interviewer requested whether or not it’s correct to say a single ChatGPT question at the moment makes use of the equal of 1.5 iPhone battery prices, to which Altman replied, “There’s no manner it’s something near that a lot.”

Altman additionally complained that many discussions about ChatGPT’s power utilization are “unfair,” particularly once they deal with “how a lot power it takes to coach an AI mannequin, relative to how a lot it prices a human to do one inference question.”

“Nevertheless it additionally takes quite a lot of power to coach a human,” Altman mentioned. “It takes like 20 years of life and the entire meals you eat throughout that point earlier than you get sensible. And never solely that, it took the very widespread evolution of the 100 billion those who have ever lived and discovered to not get eaten by predators and discovered how to determine science and no matter, to supply you.”

So in his view, the truthful comparability is, “If you happen to ask ChatGPT a query, how a lot power does it take as soon as its mannequin is skilled to reply that query versus a human? And possibly, AI has already caught up on an power effectivity foundation, measured that manner.”

You may watch the total interview under. The dialog about water and power utilization begins at round 26:35.