India, Sept. 6 -- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has pushed back against concerns over the water consumption of AI data centers, claiming that the amount of water used to power 38,000 ChatGPT queries is equivalent to the water required to produce a single almond.

Altman made the comments while discussing the backlash against AI companies during an appearance on Tuesday's episode of the new "Sources" podcast with host Alex Heath.

"You know, I saw this thing going around about the water usage of ChatGPT. And it was like, every time you run a simple ChatGPT query, it's like you run your shower for like six hours and the water never comes back and just it's done," Altman said.

He claimed that the amount of water used to produce a single California ...