At the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, Sam Altman, director of OpenAI, reignited the debate about the impact of artificial intelligence on the environment, but this time with an argument that has attracted as much attention as criticism: he believes that the focus should not be only on AI’s energy consumption, since humans themselves consume a huge amount of resources in their lifetime.
Altman spoke about the growing accusations that AI models like ChatGPT use significant amounts of energy and water. He expressed doubt about claims that, for example, a single AI questioning session uses energy or water equivalent to charging a phone or dozens of liters of water, calling such claims “totally untrue and totally crazy.”
In this context, Altman pointed out that an expert comparison of the consumption of AI and the human body must include a much broader context, not only server energy. He said that current human intelligence is influenced by millennia of evolution, plus all the resources an individual uses during the 20 years of life and education before “getting smart.” That argument, he says, is a better framework for considering the effectiveness of AI in relation to human behavior and the energy that goes into a person’s education and development.
Altman added that it is fair to worry about the overall energy consumption of the AI infrastructure, but that it cannot be simply separated from the general energy consumption in modern civilization. He emphasized that the transition to clean energy – nuclear, solar and wind – is crucial in order to meet the energy needs of technologies without neglecting climate goals.
This line of thinking has sparked criticism on social media and among analysts, as some believe Altman’s comparison relativizes the real environmental concerns that accompany energy-intensive technologies, including the training and use of AI models, Tech Crunch reports.