OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's shocking response to energy question

00:00One of the things that is always unfair in this comparison is people talk about how much energy it takes to train an AI model relative to how much it cost a human to do one inference query. But it also takes a lot of energy to train a human. It takes like 20 years of life and all of the food you eat during that time before you get smart. And not only that, it took like 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 like figure out science and whatever to produce you. And then you took whatever you you know, you took. So, the fair comparison is if you ask ChatGPT a question, how much energy does it take once its model is trained

00:39to answer that question versus a human. And probably AI has already caught up on an energy efficiency basis measured that way. >> OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, has found himself in hot water yet again. His comparison of human [music] energy consumption to AI energy consumption has sparked intense backlash. The comments were made during a Q&A session hosted by The Indian Express where Altman was questioned about one of AI's biggest criticisms, its use of resources. >> You know, you see these like things on the internet where don't use ChatGPT, it's 17 gallons of water for each query or whatever. This is completely untrue, totally insane, no no connection to reality. What is fair though is the energy

01:25consumption, not per query, but in total because the world is now using so much AI is real and we need to move towards nuclear or wind and solar very quickly. >> Critics online took issue with Altman's justification. Indian billionaire businessman, Sridhar Vembu, said, "I do not want to see a world where we equate a piece of technology to a human being." Louisa Jewell a leading voice in AI governance, saw it as a strange way to escape environmental scrutiny. And American commentator and author Matt Stoller went so far as to call Altman a sociopath. The AI energy debate is only getting more heated as the number and scale of data centers continues to grow. In some parts of the US, the drain on resources is [music] causing energy

02:14prices to skyrocket. >> Laura tells us the data center emits a low hum 24/7, [music] and it's not just the noise taking a toll. She says in the last year her average electricity bill has spiked 23%. >> And how do you budget when it's changing that much in one year? >> can't. >> [music] >> And the electric company warned prices could rise even more. >> They need more power at the data centers. [music] >> Saying one reason why is increased electricity use from data centers and artificial intelligence. >> The energy demand from these facilities [music] affects our ability to meet clean energy goals, have a livable planet, and also just pay our bills. >> The Q&A took place on the sidelines of the Indian [music] AI Impact Summit, a

02:58gathering of global leaders in the artificial intelligence field. The summit got off to a bumpy start. Bill Gates pulled out as [music] keynote speaker only hours before he was due to appear. The head of the world's most valuable company, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, also withdrew from appearing due to illness. However, the most awkward moment occurred between rival CEOs Sam Altman and Dario Amodei in what was supposed to be a photo opportunity showing unity and triumph, the pair refused to hold hands, creating the summit's most [music] memorable moment. >> [applause]

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03:51[music] >> The summit, along with Altman's comments, have done very little to calm the growing fear and uncertainty surrounding humanity's future alongside AI. >> [music]