rewrite this title OpenAI CEO Reveals How Much Water One ChatGPT Query Consumes

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has spoken out about the energy and water consumption of ChatGPT. Altman revealed how much water is consumed by asking a single question to the popular AI tool.

While artificial intelligence technologies bring us into a brand-new era and offer numerous benefits, they also raise some environmental concerns—especially related to energy and resource consumption. For instance, a recent study found that creating a five-second AI-generated video consumed as much electricity as using a microwave for one hour.

So, how much water does AI really consume?

An answer came directly from OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman. According to Altman, asking one question to ChatGPT uses approximately 0.32 milliliters of water. He simplified this by saying it’s roughly “1/15th of a teaspoon.” Given that millions of questions are asked to ChatGPT every day, this leads to significant water usage. For example, one glass of water equals around 625 ChatGPT queries.

In addition to water, Altman addressed energy usage. He stated that each ChatGPT query consumes around 0.34 watt-hours of electricity. That’s equivalent to running an oven for 1–2 seconds. Altman also suggested that in the future, the cost of AI should be on par with electricity costs.

However, Altman did not provide specific details on how these figures were calculated. So we cannot confirm the accuracy of this data. Unfortunately, there is no large-scale, verified study specifically on AI’s water usage yet. Estimates suggest that water consumption may vary depending on the AI model and the location of the data centers.

For instance, according to The Washington Post, a simple AI query generating a 100-word email may use up as much water as a bottle. As more research emerges, this issue will become clearer. But one thing is certain: focusing on AI’s energy and environmental impact is essential.

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