OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded to growing concerns about AI environmental impact by bizarrely comparing AI to humans growing through childhood. When pressed about energy consumption of his AI models, Altman responded, “It takes like 20 years of life and all of the food you eat during that time before you get smart.”
TechCrunch reports that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded to growing concerns about AI;s environmental impact during an appearance at an event hosted in India late last week. Altman, who was attending a major AI summit in the country, directly addressed criticism surrounding AI’s water and energy consumption.
Altman conceded that concerns about total energy consumption are legitimate, noting that the world’s extensive use of AI has created real energy demands. He advocated for transitioning toward sustainable energy sources as a solution.
“Fair” to be concerned about “the energy consumption — not per query, but in total, because the world is now using so much AI,” Altman said, adding that this reality means the world needs to “move towards nuclear or wind and solar very quickly.”
During the interview, Altman was asked whether a single ChatGPT query uses energy equivalent to 1.5 iPhone battery charges, a comparison previously discussed with Bill Gates. Altman rejected this figure outright, stating there was no way the consumption approached that level.
Altman argued that many discussions about ChatGPT’s energy usage are fundamentally flawed in their approach. He took particular issue with comparisons between the energy required to train an AI model and the energy a human uses to perform a single task.
“But it also takes a lot of energy to train a human,” Altman said. “It 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.” Altman’s bizarre equivalency between human beings and AI models quickly drew fire from social media critics.
Altman proposed an alternative framework for evaluating AI’s energy efficiency. He suggested that the appropriate comparison should measure the energy required for a trained AI model to answer a single question against the energy a human would use to provide the same answer. Using this metric, he claimed AI has already achieved parity or better in terms of energy efficiency.
The efforts of Sam Altman, other leaders of AI companies, and the left to radically change American culture using AI is the central topic of the upcoming book by Breitbart News Social Media Director Wynton Hall, Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI.
Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who was named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in AI, praised Code Red as a “must-read.” She added: “Few understand our conservative fight against Big Tech as Hall does,” making him “uniquely qualified to examine how we can best utilize AI’s enormous potential, while ensuring it does not exploit kids, creators, and conservatives.”
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Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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