Sam Altman: "Data centers in space are ridiculous"
At the AI summit in India, the OpenAI CEO rejected data centers in space. He also compared the costs of a human versus an AI.
(Image: DIA TV/Shutterstock.com)
During the "India AI Impact Summit" in Delhi, OpenAI co-founder and CEO gave one of his rare detailed interviews to the newspaper "The Indian Express". Questions from the audience were also allowed. Before that, however, there was a conversation with the managing director of Express, Anant Goenka. He asked, among other things, about the idea of data centers in space, which was propagated by Altman's competitor Elon Musk.
"Honestly, I think with the current environment, the idea of data centers in space is ridiculous." He pointed out that just a "simplest calculation" of the cost of transport into space shows this. And then, according to Altman, "Nobody is talking about how to repair a broken GPU in space. And unfortunately, they still break very often." While a data center in space might eventually pay off, the OpenAI CEO does not see that happening in the current decade.
Close relationships with governments necessary
Because infrastructure costs are already so high on Earth – Altman once dreamed of trillions in investments – close cooperation with governments is also necessary for the AI industry. While he still sees conflicts, Altman says about the relationship with the current US government: "The better it can be, the better for all of us." At the summit, however, he had also called for regulation elsewhere.
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The Indian Express has also published the entire conversation on YouTube as a video. In response to a question at this point about the costs of AI for training, especially concerning energy, Altman made a strange comparison. Often, he said, a request to ChatGPT is compared to a request to a human. "It takes 20 years of life, and all the food you eat during that time, before you become smart." In addition, there is the entire evolution of humanity. The better question is how much energy a request to an AI requires compared to one to a human. "And perhaps AI has already caught up if you measure energy efficiency in this way."
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