At the India AI Impact Summit 2026, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sparked a massive internet debate by comparing the energy used to train AI models with the energy required to "train" a human. Addressing critics of AI’s environmental footprint, Altman argued that people often overlook the biological "cost" of human intelligence, noting that it takes "20 years of life and all the food you eat during that time before you get smart."

He further invoked 100 billion years of human evolution as a prerequisite for modern human capability, suggesting that when measured this way, AI is already more energy-efficient than the human brain. The comments were quickly labeled "dystopian" and "anti-human" by critics who felt the analogy reduced human life to a mechanical balance sheet of calories and compute.

Valkence Hot Placement

• Rank: #10

• Featured: Week starting February 23rd, 2026

• Reasoning: We ranked this at #10 because it became the week’s biggest "tech-bro" talking point. It moved beyond a simple interview quote and turned into a wider philosophical debate about whether we should be equating pieces of technology to actual human beings.