OpenAI’s Sam Altman downplays AI’s environmental toll amid water and energy concerns

In a recent blog post, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed that ChatGPT uses minimal water and electricity per query, which are estimates that starkly contradict prior academic research according to Gizmodo author Kyle Barr. Altman suggested a single prompt consumes just 0.34 Wh and 0.000085 gallons of water, but offered no data sources, and failed to account for high-usage models or image generation demands. Based on OpenAI’s own user metrics, even these low estimates would equate to over 31 million gallons of water per year. Critics argue Altman’s claims reflect Silicon Valley’s tendency to minimize the environmental impact of scaling AI, while deflecting with vague promises of future fixes and economic abundance.