By Emily Bennett
Publication Date: 2026-02-24 07:09:00
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has downplayed concerns about the energy costs of AI, arguing that it also takes a lot of energy to train a human.
“One of the things that is always unfair about this comparison is that people talk about how much energy it takes to train an AI model versus how much energy it takes a human to run an inference query,” he said.
“But it also requires a lot of energy to train a person.
“It takes about 20 years of life and all the food you eat during that time before you become smart.
“Furthermore, it took the vast evolution of the 100 billion people who have ever lived who have learned not to be eaten by predators and who have learned to figure out science and whatever to produce you.”
