AI data centres are notoriously power inefficient, with each ChatGPT and Gemini query adding to a person's carbon footprint. OpenAI is now keen to play down the energy requirement. — Photo: Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa
SAN FRANCISCO: A single query to the AI software ChatGPT consumes as much electricity as roughly one second of baking something in an oven, according to the developer OpenAI.
Meanwhile the water consumption from each query – owing to data centres needing to be cooled – comes down to about one-fifteenth of a teaspoon, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman wrote in a blog post.
Experts have for years been warnings about the massively escalating energy demands from the widespread use of AI services. While individual queries may require less energy due to efficiency gains in chip and server technology, the sheer volume of usage continues to drive a sharp increase in energy demand for AI data centres.
Companies such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon are planning to rely on nuclear energy in the US to help meet this demand without proportionally increasing emissions of climate-damaging carbon dioxide.
The need to cool data centres has also raised concerns about water consumption. In recent years, several studies have attempted to calculate the environmental impact of increased AI usage, but researchers must rely on numerous assumptions.
Altman shared OpenAI's energy and water figures in a blog post in which he painted a generally positive picture of the future of AI.
He acknowledged that there would be significant disruptions, such as the elimination of entire job categories. "But on the other hand the world will be getting so much richer so quickly that we’ll be able to seriously entertain new policy ideas we never could before."
In recent years, the idea of a universal basic income, funded by productivity gains, has been discussed in connection with AI.
According to the OpenAI chief executive, an average ChatGPT query consumes approximately 0.34 watt-hours of electricity ("about what an oven would use in a little over one second, or a high-efficiency lightbulb would use in a couple of minutes").
He quantified the water consumption at 0.000085 gallons (0.00032176 litres). Altman did not provide further details about the basis for these calculations. – dpa
