Artificial intelligence (AI) makes our jobs easier in many ways. However, this involves not only the cost of building the AI infrastructure, but also the cost of operating and maintaining it. However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes that compared to the energy consumed by humans, the consumption by AI data centers is not extreme.
However, Zoho co-founder Sridhar Venbu doesn’t seem to agree with Altman’s view on this matter. Here are the details:
What would Sam Altman say?
Altman addressed concerns about AI’s impact on the environment. The head of OpenAI argued that even humans need a lot of energy and resources to become smart. “People talk about how much energy it takes to train an AI model, but it also takes a lot of energy to train a human being. It takes about 20 years of life and all the food you eat during that time to become smart,” he told The Indian Express.
Sam Altman argued that if you compare the energy consumed by an AI that has already been trained to process a specific query, that number may actually be less than what a human would need. Altman explained, “If you ask ChatGPT a question, and the model is trained to answer that question, how much energy does it take compared to a human? And perhaps on an energy efficiency basis, measured that way, AI is already catching up.”
Answered by Sridhar Venbu from Zoho
In response to Altman’s analogy, Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu offered a different perspective. The head of Zoho made it clear that technology should not be compared to humans on the same level. “I don’t want to see a world where we equate some piece of technology with a human being,” he wrote of X.
Vembu argued that technology should not rule our lives. “As a technologist, I work hard for a world where technology does not take over our lives and instead quietly recedes into the background,” he said.
Sridhar Vembu is not alone in holding such views. Regarding X, one user pointed out that such comparisons may not be ethical. The person said, “They don’t differentiate between people and objects.”
Another user added: “This analogy is a dangerous exercise in reducing the human mind to a mechanical balance sheet of calories and time.” One person shared a screenshot from the movie The Matrix and wrote: “Where have I ever seen people replace human food with AI food?”
Sam Altman says one ChatGPT query doesn’t require 17 gallons of water
Over the past few months, many have claimed that a single query on ChatGPT can use huge amounts of energy and water to run AI data centers. However, according to Altman, this number was much smaller for individual queries. “On the Internet, you often see things like, ‘Don’t use ChatGPT, it takes 17 gallons of water per query,’” Altman said. “This is completely untrue, completely insane and has no connection to reality.”
However, the head of OpenAI acknowledged that the world needs to quickly switch to renewable energy sources as the overall energy consumption of AI data centers remains high.
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