Sam Altman Says AI Water Use Fears Are Overblown but Hard to Dispel

Sam Altman says concern about AI water utilization is a “meme” that does not really maintain any water.

The OpenAI CEO was requested to answer resistance to AI, together with issues about water consumption, on the premiere episode of the Sources podcast with Alex Heath, revealed Tuesday.

Altman mentioned that whereas they’ve a popularity for being water guzzlers, trendy knowledge facilities use about as a lot water as an workplace constructing.

“That has been a sturdy meme and troublesome to disprove, however I do not assume holds as much as any scrutiny,” he mentioned.

A 2024 report from a state authorities fee in Virginia — a scorching spot for knowledge facilities — discovered that whereas some services used considerably extra water than others, most knowledge facilities used the identical quantity or lower than a mean giant workplace constructing.

Water consumption has been a central concern within the backlash towards knowledge facilities. A Gallup report revealed in Might discovered 71% of Individuals mentioned they opposed the development of an information middle of their space, with 70% saying they frightened particularly in regards to the environmental influence. Half of the respondents cited the impact on sources, with 18% naming water particularly.

A Enterprise Insider investigation revealed final yr discovered data centers had been contributing to the water disaster within the West, partly due to water-intensive evaporative cooling strategies.

The Information Heart Coalition, an trade commerce group, says data center developers use numerous cooling strategies, together with some closed-loop or waterless programs, and that they prioritize environment friendly water practices that account for native water availability.

Altman additionally in contrast the water utilized by ChatGPT to that utilized in rising California almonds, a water-intensive crop. He mentioned rising a single almond in California requires extra water than is utilized in hundreds of ChatGPT queries, including “the folks which are scarfing down 12 almonds at a time do not feel like they’re doing one thing horrible from a water perspective, for essentially the most half.”

Enterprise Insider couldn’t independently confirm Altman’s comparability, however the declare that water consumption from rising a single almond is orders of magnitude larger than an AI chatbot immediate typically strains up with out there figures. Altman has mentioned the typical ChatGPT query makes use of about 0.32 milliliters of water, whereas Google has mentioned the typical Gemini app textual content immediate makes use of 0.26 milliliters. A 2019 examine by researchers affiliated with the US Geological Survey discovered that rising a single almond in California requires a mean of three.56 liters, rather less than a gallon of water per nut.

Whereas he mentioned the water issues round AI are overblown, he mentioned he thinks it is as much as the trade to vary the general public’s minds.

“I feel the suitable approach to get folks to love one thing is to ship them worth,” Altman mentioned, including, “The trade has received work to do when it comes to how we make these merchandise simple to make use of and simple for folks to get plenty of worth out of.”