Sam Altman has challenged growing concerns about the environmental impact of artificial intelligence, calling many claims about water usage “completely untrue.”

He made the remarks during an event hosted by The Indian Express.

Altman acknowledged that water consumption was once an issue when data centers relied on evaporative cooling but said modern facilities no longer operate that way.

He dismissed viral claims suggesting that individual ChatGPT queries consume large amounts of water.

While downplaying water concerns, Altman said it is reasonable to scrutinize AI’s overall energy consumption, noting that global AI usage is rapidly increasing.

He argued that the solution lies in accelerating the adoption of renewable and nuclear energy.

Responding to comparisons between AI energy use and smartphone battery consumption, Altman said such figures are exaggerated and misleading.

He added that discussions often ignore the energy required to train humans, which he described as far more resource-intensive over time.

In his view, once models are trained, AI systems may already rival or exceed humans in energy efficiency when answering individual questions, making the debate more complex than headline statistics suggest.

Source: Techcrunch