Sam Altman challenges estimates of ChatGPT’s water use
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has downplayed concerns over the amount of water used by AI data centers, arguing that widely circulated claims about their water consumption do not reflect modern cooling technology, Qazinform News Agency reports.
Speaking on the Sources Podcast with Alex Heath, Altman said modern data centers have largely moved away from evaporative cooling systems.
He claimed that producing a single almond in California uses roughly as much water as 38,000 ChatGPT queries.
According to Altman, a modern large data center uses roughly as much water as an office building, mainly for everyday use.
The podcast discussion also covered OpenAI’s next major model, the company’s Astra project, competition with Anthropic, artificial general intelligence, AI safety and alignment, consumer hardware, frontier research and Altman’s views on a potential initial public offering.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that users worldwide had reported disruptions affecting ChatGPT and several other artificial intelligence services.