Altman's AI water use: Almond comparison debated

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has defended the water consumption of artificial intelligence systems, comparing the amount of water used for 38,000 ChatGPT queries to the amount needed to produce a single California almond. Altman made the remarks during an appearance on the Sources podcast this week, pushing back against widespread concerns about the water usage of AI data centers. Altman stated that the perception of AI systems consuming excessive water has become a "robust meme" that lacks scrutiny. He acknowledged that he was recalling the figure from memory and that it might not be exact, but believed it was close to the actual amount. He also noted that modern data centers do not rely on older evaporative cooling methods and use water amounts comparable to an office building for routine functions like sinks and toilets. However, the comparison has drawn scrutiny. According to research affiliated with the U.S. Geological Survey, producing a single California almond requires an average of 3.56 liters of water. Altman himself previously estimated a typical ChatGPT query uses approximately 0.32 milliliters of water.