38,000 ChatGPT queries use about as much water as one California almond
TansuYegen · x · 2026-09-06
Citing a quantified comparison, Tansu Yegen notes that every 38,000 ChatGPT queries consume roughly the same amount of water as producing a single almond in California. The framing matters: it reframes "AI is just software" as a resource question — water for cooling, power for compute, and real infrastructure constraints. At massive query volumes, efficiency becomes a core product feature rather than an afterthought.
Related event: Altman: 38,000 ChatGPT queries use as much water as one California almond(2 posts)→
More from AGI Musings
- Georgetown's AI referee leaderboard has Claude Opus 4.8 scoring finance papers — emollick · 2026-09-07
- OpenAI Hits 'Automated Research Intern' Milestone, Targets Fully Automated AI Researcher by 2028 — soumitrashukla9 · 2026-09-07
- OpenAI Publishes First Data on AI Accelerating Its Own Research, Urges Rival Labs to Follow — soumitrashukla9 · 2026-09-07
- kimmonismus: Path to Recursive Self-Improvement Is Clear, Alignment Is the Only Problem — kimmonismus · 2026-09-07
- Jason's hyper-bull case: 30% of global rides AV-driven in 10 years, Tesla at 40% share — omojumiller · 2026-09-07
- Reddit debates whether generative video will flood the internet into unreadability — VasaFromParadise · 2026-09-07