August M
OpenAI chief Sam Altman has drawn criticism after suggesting artificial intelligence could rival humans in terms of energy efficiency required for learning. The remarks quickly ignited debate online, with some critics accusing him of reducing human life to a technological comparison.
The comments were made during a discussion about the environmental impact of artificial intelligence, reports The Express.
Controversial remarks
According to reporting by The Express, Altman compared the resources needed to develop human intelligence with the energy required to train AI systems.
“It also takes a lot of energy to train a human,” he said during an event hosted by The Indian Express as part of an AI summit.
“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 the very widespread evolution of the 100 billion people that have ever lived… to produce you. AI has already caught up on an energy efficiency basis.”
The comments prompted criticism from some technologists and online users.
Critical response
Technology executive and scientist Sridhar Vembu responded to the remarks on social media platform X.
“I do not want to see a world where we equate a piece of technology to a human being,” he wrote.
“I work hard as a technologist to see a world where we don’t allow technology to dominate our lives; instead, it should quietly recede into the background.”
The debate also spread to Reddit, where users reacted strongly to the comparison.
One user wrote: “It really is one of the most frightening things I’ve ever seen a techbro say.”
Energy debate
Altman’s comments were originally made while addressing claims about the environmental cost of artificial intelligence systems.
Some critics have suggested that individual AI queries consume large quantities of water or energy, claims Altman rejected.
“Don’t use ChatGPT, it’s 17 gallons of water for each query or whatever,” he said. “This is completely untrue, totally insane, no connection to reality.”
He explained that older data centres once used evaporative cooling systems that required significant water, but argued that modern infrastructure is changing that.
Growing demand
Despite rejecting exaggerated figures, Altman acknowledged that the rapid expansion of AI is increasing global energy demand.
Sources: The Express, The Indian Express, X, Reddit
