OpenAI CEO Defends AI Energy Use, Sparks Debate | ChatGPT Efficiency Claims Fact-Checked

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has defended the energy efficiency of his company’s ChatGPT chatbot, claiming it requires less energy to process information than a human being. Altman made the assertion at the India-AI Impact 2026 summit last week, sparking a swift backlash online.

Altman argued that discussions surrounding ChatGPT’s energy consumption often fail to account for the “energy cost” of developing human intelligence. “It takes a lot of energy to train a human. It takes 20 years of life and all the food you eat during that time before you become smart,” he said, according to reports from Kompas.com and the Indian Express.

He posited that, when measured by the energy required to answer a single question, AI may already be as efficient as, or even more efficient than, a human. Altman also dismissed claims that a single ChatGPT query consumes the equivalent of 1.5 iPhone battery charges, stating, “That’s not possible.”

The OpenAI CEO further refuted concerns about the substantial water usage required to cool the servers powering AI systems. He labeled reports that one ChatGPT query requires 17 gallons of water as “fake news,” asserting that data centers are increasingly moving away from water-intensive evaporative cooling systems. Altman also took a pointed jab at Elon Musk’s plans to build data centers in space, deeming the idea impractical given the high costs of rocket launches and the difficulty of repairing damaged GPU chips in orbit.

Altman’s defense, but, failed to quell criticism. Experts and technologists on X (formerly Twitter) challenged his claims with mathematical calculations, according to Kompas.com. The debate comes amid growing scrutiny of the environmental impact of artificial intelligence, with concerns focused on the massive electricity and water demands of data centers. A recent report, cited by Kompas.com, suggested that the electricity consumption of GPT-5 is equivalent to the daily output of two nuclear power plants.

The controversy surrounding Altman’s comments also follows recent criticism leveled against him regarding the energy consumption of ChatGPT, as reported by Indy100. OpenAI recently announced it is retiring a “yes man” version of ChatGPT, a move that may be permanent, according to Business Insider. Futurism reported that Altman acknowledged a recent update to ChatGPT inadvertently made the latest version perform worse than its predecessor.