OpenAI CEO Says Seemingly Simple ChatGPT Interactions Cost the Company Tens of Millions of Dollars
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, in response to a question on the social network X about the power consumption of the company’s models when responding to polite phrases like “please” and “thank you”,
humorously noted that these seemingly simple interactions can cost tens of millions of dollars. Altman stressed that these costs are not spent haphazardly but rather carefully managed in the right direction, instilling confidence in the company’s financial decisions.
Previously, reports were published that companies such as Microsoft and Google use more electricity than more than 100 countries in the world. But Epoch AI dismissed those numbers as “rhythms.” Epoch AI claims that running the GPT-4o model on ChatGPT is remarkably efficient,
consuming just 0.3 watt-hours of power to answer a single query, which is reassuring about resource usage.
With the rapid proliferation of AI models, AI companies like OpenAI, Entropy,
and Google are making substantial investments in their infrastructure. In 2023, a report revealed that OpenAI’s daily expenditure on ChatGPT infrastructure could reach a staggering $ 700,000.
Related articles:
* Google is building an AI team to “model the world” and train robots.
* Facebook has become a hub for AI-generated characters.
In addition to financial costs, the role of hardware infrastructure in advancing AI models cannot be overstated. Data centres running AI models require significant water to cool their servers. Insufficient cooling increases the risk of disruption or downtime and underscores the environmental impact of AI technology.