OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has sought government help to build massive data centres “that would suck up as much power as major American cities,” according to a report by Fortune, which said experts weren’t sure anyone could meet such power demands.
After a meeting at the White House with top artificial intelligence players, including Altman, the Biden Administration announced a push to speed up the build-out of new AI data centres “in line with economic, national security, and environmental goals,” it said, but later it was discovered OpenAI, in particular, would need an “astonishing” 5 gigawatts each.
Five gigawatts would be equal to output of about five nuclear reactors, and at least 100 times the requirements of a standard large data centre, the Fortune report noted, adding that OpenAi wants to build five to seven such facilities.
Seven data centres pulling in 5 gigawatts of power would account for more than “1% of global electricity consumption,” Fortune added. The amount is so extreme OpenAI’s proposal “drew laughter from a Japanese official,” Fortune added.
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Warren Buffett Likens AI to the Atomic Bomb — Quartz
AI Could up Profits But Also Disrupt Banking: Citi Report – M’place
Returns From AI Projects ‘Dismal’, Survey Finds – Register
Generative AI Seen Having Big Impacts on Environment – Nature
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