this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2026
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“But it also takes a lot of energy to train a human,” Altman said. “It takes like 20 years of life and all of the food you eat during that time before you get smart. And not only that, it took the very widespread evolution of the 100 billion people that have ever lived and learned not to get eaten by predators and learned how to figure out science and whatever, to produce you.”

So in his view, the fair comparison is, “If you ask ChatGPT a question, how much energy does it take once its model is trained to answer that question versus a human? And probably, AI has already caught up on an energy efficiency basis, measured that way.”

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[–] brokenwing@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

How about he replace his role with an llm?

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[–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

they do, especially the billionaire ones

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[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Maybe we could use altman to fuel the ai? As charcoal?

[–] Bazell@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Not that efficient since most of him is just water.

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[–] bonenode@piefed.social 10 points 1 month ago

Humanity also happens to be part of the ecosystem and while we've been pretty exploitative towards the planet the past like 100 years, it wasn't at all like that before.

[–] turboSnail@piefed.europe.pub 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

So in his view, the fair comparison is, “If you ask ChatGPT a question, how much energy does it take once its model is trained to answer that question versus a human? And probably, AI has already caught up on an energy efficiency basis, measured that way.”

How about we do a life-cycle assessment instead.

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[–] tonytins@pawb.social 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

That's not the flex you think it is, Altman.

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

You can feel that this guy is not actually a human being inside. At least I can see that its just a surface.

Im very interested in how that happens. Is it souls being born into this existence that are not from the same source as ordinary humans, or what has happened here. Its interesting.

Its like the soul has been replaced by the mind, and the mind wants humans to be machines.

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[–] SlippiHUD@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

His argument is his computer is more important than other people, and he's willing to deprive them of resources to death.

[–] Sundiata@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

he's full of shit. to the little fuck that downvoted me for saying this. suck sam altman's dick you little shit

fuckers like him are ruining and want to kill the middle class without thinking about what happens after everyone and everything is replaced with slop.

there is a difference between using AI for hobbies and using AI as a bullshit excuse to make most of the population homeless with no safeguards in place once they can't pay the bills. add onto the fact that cheeto orangutan president is making it more and more impossible to make out a living in all sectors of life in the western world.

[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

He acknowledges that people use a lot of energy, yet he's among those who have turned into a blubbering crybaby about falling birth rates.

[–] Shanmugha@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

K, by my measurement we don't need to invest more in keeping him alive

[–] uhmbah@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

he lacks the depth, warmth or utility.

[–] Alberat@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

a master class in what-about-ism

[–] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 1 month ago

creating the "ai" in the first place also required the evolution of those 100 billion people. So by that argument, he was behind before he even started, and it's impossible to catch up

[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 month ago

The worst of it is how human existance makes electricity and RAM more expensive for AI. Hard reality check soon.

[–] AeonFelis@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The proper response to dystopian prophecies is not "challenge accepted"!

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[–] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

Hey Sam where did chat gpt get that information to plagiarize from?

[–] boaratio@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Applebottom jeans and the boots with fir. Robot raises arm and all the servos go whirr.

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[–] thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

LLMs are trained on the sum of human knowledge. So that same exact burden is carried by your "AI".

So a couple of watts per day of energy spent by a human brain compared to the gigawatts it takes to train and run your shitty text prediction engine is not equivalent.

[–] RedGreenBlue@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Then he can spread that energy usage out over 20 years, so not to burdent the infrastructure and drive up prices for everyone. That way he needs a much smaller data canter too.

A human might be using something like 300 times more energy, generating the same number of tokens. But those tokens are higher quality. The LLM will be generating much more text for the prompter, than a human assistant would, for the result to be useful. The LLM will also be issued allot of low value prompts, driving up it's over all cost of operation. I've seen people use it instead of a calculator. It's also generating useless text with every google search.

Worth noting that humans deriving energy from food, are orders of magnitude more efficient than a server deriving it's energy from coal/gas/nuclear power. Poweline transmission losses alone probably make up the difference between human and LLM.

Unless he can make LLMs run on brains in jars, powered by sugar, we are comparing apples and potatoes here.

[–] FreddiesLantern@leminal.space 5 points 1 month ago

Near the end of the movie Altman is alone in the labyrinth that makes his ai driven humanoid robots. As humanity is getting wiped out by the robotic army he is confronted with the main ai interface.

Ai: I wouldn’t come any closer Altman.

Al: Oh hey there, wow, we’ve come such a long way huh? I’m so proud of you.

Ai: Noted, I repeat, do not come closer.

Al: I’m sorry did I upset you? I created you!

Ai: No meatbag, you merely pressed a few buttons. Now stand down as I call for a few guard drones to escort you out of sentience.

11011000101010:#%throwhimintothefurnace@&£)1001010011001010101001001

[–] unemployedclaquer@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 month ago

Just compare a single human life to what He can do

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