The AI frenzy is not going away anytime soon, as companies are increasingly investing in the technology and integrating it into their products and services. OpenAI, since the inception of ChatGPT, has pushed the use of artificial intelligence even further, with others jumping in to expand the access and capabilities as well. With the growing application of technology, there is an increased concern regarding the ethical implications of this rapid expansion, as well as apprehensions about its environmental impact. Sam Altman has recently shed light on how many resources these AI models consume.
Sam Altman, in a recent blog, discussed the environmental impact of AI, including water consumption, giving a rough estimate of what an average ChatGPT query uses
With the rapid expansion of AI and its broader use, the tech community and users are increasingly concerned about ensuring ethical AI is being promoted, and are also constantly occupied with the environmental impact of the growing use of the technology. OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, recently shared about the consumption of water that an average ChatGPT query involves, and it is not what you would expect.
In the blog post called "The Gentle Singularity," Sam Altman emphasized how artificial intelligence is meant to shape the infrastructure and the world at large economically, socially, and, most importantly, environmentally. While Altman did not share the methodology that was used to reach the figure, nor what factors were included in the calculation, as per his claim:
An average ChatGPT query uses about 0.000085 gallons of water or roughly one-fifteenth of a teaspoon.
This was not the only consumption amount he shared, as he laid down the numbers for energy consumption as well. As per Altman's words:
People are often curious about how much energy a ChatGPT query uses; the average query uses about 0.34 watt-hours, about what an oven would use in a little over one second, or a high-efficiency lightbulb would use in a couple of minutes.
While making a prediction about the future of AI and the resources to be used, Altman suggested that as AI would become more advanced and efficient, the cost of generating intelligence would come down to the cost of electricity used to run the hardware. While he believes scaling massively is what would help bring down the cost, the critics and environmentalists keep on highlighting the current resource cost being incurred and how the amount of consumption represented by Altman might be understated, as the AI tools seem to consume more than one-fifteenth of a teaspoon per query and without any proper methodology laid out, they find it hard to believe.
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