Sam Altman defends AI resource usage: Water concerns 'fake,' and 'humans use energy too'

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman defended AI's resource usage by claiming water consumption concerns are false and comparing AI energy use to human energy consumption, though he acknowledged total energy demand from widespread AI use is a legitimate concern. Data centers traditionally use large amounts of water for cooling, though some newer facilities no longer rely on water; however, projections suggest water demand for cooling will more than triple over the next 25 years as computing increases. Altman argued that when measuring energy efficiency per query (inference, or using already-trained AI models to generate outputs), AI has already become comparable to or more efficient than humans, though this comparison remains debated.