By Eric Berger
Publication Date: 2026-02-23 16:38:00
OpenAI boss Sam Altman has sought to address concerns about the power consumption of artificial intelligence models by comparing it to the amount of energy required for human development.
“People talk about how much energy it takes to train an AI model – but it also takes a lot of energy to train a human,” Altman recently told The Indian Express while in India for the AI Impact Summit. “It takes about 20 years of life – and all the foods you eat during that time – to become smart.”
Despite this defense, he said that the public assessment of AI’s energy use was “fair,” adding: “We need to move to nuclear power or wind and solar power very quickly.”
These comments come amid a growing discussion about the environmental impact of the data centers required to power AI models – and more broadly, the technology’s potential impact on society.
Accordingly, data centers were responsible for around 1.5% of global electricity consumption in 2024