<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has downplayed concerns about AI's energy cost, arguing it takes a lot of energy to train a human too.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Altman, who appeared at a Q&amp;A session hosted by newspaper </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH7thwrCluM" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="The Indian Express"><em><span>The Indian Express</span></em></a><span> this week, pushed back on the comparisons between humans and artificial intelligence.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"One of the things that is always unfair in this comparison is that people talk about how much energy it takes to train an AI model relative to how much it takes for a human to do an inference query," he said.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/andrew-mountbatten-windsor-arrested-pm-anthony-albanese-throws-support-behind-push-to-remove-former-prince-from-line-of-succession/8efe37b6-5ff5-48ba-aa48-fe1834cc89cd" target="_blank"><strong><span>Albanese backs push to remove ex-prince Andrew from line of succession</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>EXCLUSIVE:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/pokemon-card-trading-how-lucy-makes-six-figures-buying-selling-cards-online/fa14a3d5-4369-46d6-b8e5-7f298be950cb" target="_blank"><strong><span>Lucy works a 9 to 5, but she makes more money trading Pokémon cards</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"But it also takes a lot of energy to train a human.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It takes like 20 years of life and all of the food you eat during that time before you get smart. </span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/sam-altman-openai-ceo-defends-ai-resource-usage-arguing-humans-use-energy-too/854b3e1e-5b37-46be-9568-49dec1a2836e" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"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.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Then you took whatever you took."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>According to US research, a single ChatGPT query consumes </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/generative-ai-environmental-impact-concerns-eco-anxiety/6303df5a-2d18-43ca-9e82-424028a99ab9" rel="" target="" title="nearly 10 times as much"><span>nearly 10 times as much</span></a><span> energy as a typical Google search, while it takes about half a litre of water to process 20 to 50 queries.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Generative AI models need massive computational power to train and run them.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Data centres, which contain buildings full of computer servers, churn through huge amounts of electricity all over the globe.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>WEATHER:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/victorians-warned-to-brace-for-a-soaking-with-thunderstorms-flash-flooding-forecast/f1ec6a48-d4a2-4ae8-acfc-f4a86ae802a8" target="_blank"><strong><span>State warned to brace for thunderstorms and flash flooding</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>MONEY:</span></strong><span> </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/major-superannuation-shakeup-set-to-impact-more-than-14-million-workers/9a0798ed-c450-43eb-838c-a6555a2535a3" target="_blank"><strong><span>Major super shake-up set to impact more than 14 million workers</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Data centres consumed about 460 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2022 alone, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>All of </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/australia" rel="" target="" title="Australia"><span>Australia</span></a><span> consumed less than 300TWh that same year.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Altman argued concerns about water usage were "totally fake" but conceded "we used to do evaporative cooling in data centres".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Now that we don't do that," he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"You see these things on the internet where [a post says] 'don't use ChatGPT, it's 17 gallons of water for each query' or whatever.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"This is completely untrue, totally insane, no connection to reality.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"What is fair though is the energy consumption, not per query, but in total because the world is now using so much AI.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It is real and we need to move towards nuclear or wind and solar very quickly."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><em><span>NEVER MISS A STORY:</span></em></strong><span> </span><em><span>Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.</span></em></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><ul><li><strong><em><span>Download the 9NEWS App here via</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="https://apps.apple.com/au/app/9news/id1010533727" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>Apple</span></em></strong></a><span> </span><strong><em><span>and</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nineNewsAlerts.nine.com&amp;hl=en_AU&amp;pli=1" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>Google Play</span></em></strong></a></li><li><strong><em><span>Make 9News your preferred source on Google by</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="https://9.nine.com.au/8x987w" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>ticking this box here</span></em></strong></a></li><li><strong><em><span>Sign up to</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="https://login.nine.com.au/edm?client_id=nineatnine" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>our breaking newsletter here</span></em></strong></a></li></ul></div></div>