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PC Gamer

Jeremy Laird

OpenAI head Sam Altman claims a single ChatGPT query uses ‘one 15th of a teaspoon’ of water but that doesn't put AI's environmental impact in the clear

Sam Altman OpenAI ChatGPT United States

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 06: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the OpenAI DevDay event on November 06, 2023 in San Francisco, California. Altman delivered the keynote address at the first-ever Open AI DevDay conference.(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images).

In a blog post on Tuesday(via The Verge), OpenAI supremo Sam Altman said that a typical ChatGPT query uses ‘roughly one 15th of a teaspoon’ of water. Altman doesn't go into any detail over that claim, including whether it's a consequence of the cooling hardware used to manage server computers or also the broader environmental impact of AI, such as manufacturing and installing all the hardware.

Whatever, the immediate question is just how much water is that? It doesn't sound like a lot. But then, OpenAI is processing an awful lot of ChatGPT queries. So could it add up to a lot?

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