Sam Altman rejected claims that AI data centers are unusually heavy water consumers, calling the idea a 'meme' and arguing modern large facilities use no more water than typical office buildings. He compared ChatGPT’s per-query water footprint to California almond production, saying 38,000 queries equal the water for one almond, citing CalMatters and studies that estimate 0.32 ml per query versus 3.56 liters per almond.
