Sam Altman's vision is the stuff of my nightmares: "A significant fraction of the power on Earth should be spent running AI"
Laptop Mag
AMD Advancing AI 2025 keynote conversation with AMD CEO Lisa Su
“Theoretically, at some points, you can see that a significant fraction of the power on Earth should be spent running AI compute. And maybe we're going to get there”
Sam Altman12 June 2025- What you'll lose3/5
A significant fraction of the planet's power.
- Condescension1/5
Said with a laugh.
- Tone-deafness4/5
A question about outages, answered with the Earth's power supply.
- Doom2/5
The planet as a power socket for compute.
- Hypocrisy0/5
None.
Full time10 pitchforksof a possible 25
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The occasion
AMD Advancing AI 2025 keynote conversation with AMD CEO Lisa Su, 12 June 2025.
Context
Su, referring to recent ChatGPT outages, asked whether there will ever be enough GPUs. Altman paused, laughed, and answered with the comment about the share of Earth's power that could go to AI compute.
Crowd reaction
Critical commentary
Laptop Mag headlines it 'the stuff of my nightmares' and writes that cloud data centers 'fuel my nightmares'; Futurism calls it 'nightmare fuel' and a flippant admission that ignores the environmental impact.