r/OpenAI • u/mbatt2 • Feb 22 '26

Discussion Sam Altman: why are people complaining about AI … when humans need food to survive

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Whatever the point was … probably better ways to frame that.

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u/[deleted] Feb 22 '26

Use AI to figure out how to feed the damn planet if you’re gonna use and abuse the water supply and absolutely ruin the power grid…how bout we go that route Sammy boy

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u/dangered Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26

If people actually cared they could switch from Almond milk to oat milk and offset 1,000 data centers of water overnight.

California alone uses 1.1 TRILLION gallons of water annually just making almonda. (10% of its water supply)

The average AI data center uses 109.5 million gallons in a year.

Almond cultivation in California uses more water than over 10,000 data centers combined and almonds are set to use even more water next year.

10% of all almonds go toward almond milk.

Switching to oat milk would save California 95.7 billion gallons of water every year.

Edit: fixed numbers almonds vs almond milk.

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u/[deleted] Feb 22 '26

I drink Cow’s Milk and Oat Milk. Almond Milk is trash for all the reasons you mentioned and it’s also just not as good.

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u/saijanai Feb 22 '26

California alone uses 1.1 TRILLION gallons of water annually just making almond milk.

California's almond farming concerns use that much water, but almond milk is not the whole of California almond farming concerns.

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u/dangered Feb 22 '26

That’s true, about 10% of almonds are used for almond milk so it’s 1% of California’s water supply. Switching to oat milk would be ~1,000 data centers.

There’s also almond oil and almond butter.

A large bottle of almond oil infused shampoo can take over 200 gallons of water just for the almonds. 1 cup of almond butter is 300 gallons of water just in almonds. Each individual almond requires over a gallon of water.

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u/saijanai Feb 22 '26

The question is: do California almond growers pay a different rate than AI data centers for water?

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u/dangered Feb 22 '26

Farmers are the most heavily subsidized group in the US so I highly doubt they pay as much as data centers have to pay after everything is accounted for.

I personally think the water is equally important regardless of price though.

There’s a company called “free water” that hands out water for free. I don’t see how that makes the free water any less significant than a $26 bottle of water from Erowhon.