Power Play

By Gordon Hopkins Several AI (artificial intelligence) power players will soon heading to the White House. They are not going there to replace everyone with AI, though I'm not sure how many Americans would actually be opposed to such a thing. No, tech company leaders are meeting with senior White House officials for the very first time to discuss the infrastructure needed to support the rapidly growing AI revolution.Let's be clear. When I say infrastructure, what I really mean is power. Energy. Juice. Electricity.Most people who sit at a computer and ask it questions, like ‘why is the sky blue?’ or ‘how do I make pancakes?’ or ‘who thought Bitcoin was actually a good idea?,’ don't think about how many electrons are sacrificed to ask the questions and get the answers. Most people think that, once you turn your computer on, the energy usage is basically the same no matter what you are doing. I certainly did. Until recently.AI uses a lot of electricity. I mean, a lot. According to a 2024 report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), a single request on ChatGPT, to use one example, uses about 10 times as much electricity as a typical Google search. Per a story published by Goldman Sachs in May of this year, the demand for power created by AI could increase by 160 percent by 2030. We saw something similar when Bitcoin madness struck seemingly sane business people and thus began a sort of digital gold rush. The massive data centers and servers needed for mining Bitcoin use huge amounts of electricity. For those who don't know what “mining Bitcoin” means, I'm not gonna bother to explain it. Just don't even get me started. Cities began campaigning to host the facilities needed to serve those servers like they were a football franchise. Those cities also promised to provide the needed infrastructure needed to power those servers, not unlike a city promising to build a new stadium.I suspect we will see something similar happen with AI. There is a big difference between Bitcoin and AI, from a energy need standpoint, I mean. Bitcoin doesn't actually do anything. It just exists. So, its opportunity for growth is limited to people who aren't interested in actually doing anything other than turning Bitcoin into more Bitcoin. AI, on the other hand, is used by people who want to do something (like art or science, journalism or create political change) and get paid for it. In other words, AI will be used both by people who are interested in making money and those for whom making money is a secondary goal.So, as AI finds its way, the potential for AI expansion is virtually limitless.Which means AI's thirst for more power is also virtually limitless. The increased demand for power and how that demand will be met is just one more way in which AI is reshaping the world in a disconcertingly short period of time. No one knows what is coming, but one thing is certain: If someone tells you they do know what is coming, that person is lying or an idiot. Or both.

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