The AI revolution is in full swing, with companies and developers investing heavily in artificial intelligence technologies. OpenAI, the organization behind ChatGPT, has become one of the leading forces driving AI’s development and application.
Since the release of ChatGPT, the use of AI has grown significantly, prompting important discussions about the ethical and environmental implications of its widespread adoption.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, recently shared some interesting insights into the environmental costs of AI, specifically the water and energy consumption per ChatGPT query. In a blog post titled ‘The Gentle Singularity,’ Altman addressed the societal, economic, and environmental implications of AI, underscoring the growing concern over the resource consumption tied to AI models like ChatGPT.
One of the most eye-catching claims Altman made was about water usage. According to him, each average ChatGPT query consumes around 0.000085 gallons of water, or about one-fifteenth of a teaspoon. While this figure may seem surprisingly low, Altman did not provide the methodology behind this calculation or disclose the factors that contributed to this number, leaving some room for skepticism.
Altman also shared energy consumption data, stating that the average ChatGPT query uses about 0.34 watt-hours of energy. To put that in perspective, that’s roughly equivalent to the energy used by an oven for just over one second, or a high-efficiency lightbulb for a couple of minutes.
Looking ahead, Altman predicts that the cost of AI will eventually be comparable to the cost of electricity required to run the hardware. He believes that as AI continues to evolve and become more efficient, its environmental footprint will decrease significantly. However, critics have raised concerns that this optimistic view may underestimate the true environmental impact of AI, especially considering the lack of transparency in the methodology used to determine these figures.
While AI promises to bring significant advances, the debate around its ethical and environmental costs is likely to continue. Until more concrete data is made available, it’s difficult to fully assess the true resource cost of AI models like ChatGPT, and whether the benefits outweigh the potential environmental impacts.