Like it or not, the age of artificial intelligence is upon us, transforming it from science fiction fantasy into the foundation of the future global economy.
Breakthrough technologies like AI and quantum computing will soon become so pervasive throughout society that we’ll wonder how we ever lived without them. Like mobile phones and the internet, AI will fundamentally change our world and human experience — hopefully for the better.
At the moment, the biggest obstacle to the rise of AI is the misguided energy policies that Western governments have embarked on in recent decades. The drive towards net-zero carbon emissions and the insistence on replacing fossil fuel-based energy sources with so-called renewable sources such as wind and solar power poses the biggest threat to an AI-based future.
In other words, the massive and reckless move by climate mongers to transition almost overnight from reliable and affordable energy sources like oil, natural gas, and coal to green energy, which has yet to reach widespread adoption, is incompatible with the massive amounts of energy AI will need over the coming decades.
Don’t just take my word for it, many tech experts have said the exact same thing before.Mark ZuckerbergToElon MuskThere is consensus among Silicon Valley leaders that AI will dramatically increase the demand for reliable, affordable energy.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, one of the most vocal advocates of the green energy transition, has changed his tune in recent months, saying: “AI data centers will require more power than we ever imagined.”Fink said.“We in the G7 don’t have enough power.”
So what’s the solution? How do we ensure there’s enough energy to power the massive data centers that AI will require, while also ensuring there’s enough energy to meet the needs of American homes, businesses, and all the rest?
First, we must stop the foolish move away from a fossil fuel-based energy grid to one that relies on wind and solar power, which are too expensive, unreliable and unscalable. 14 percent In the current form of total energy consumed in the United States, wind and solar simply cannot provide enough energy to meet current energy demands, let alone the enormous increase that will surely occur once AI data centers begin to strain the nation’s power grid.
Additionally, wind and solar provide intermittent energy – they can only provide power when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining. AI data centers need a constant flow of energy – they can’t shut down when it’s cloudy or there’s no wind.
Second, clean-burning natural gas must be adopted as a viable energy source to meet growing demand as more AI data centers are built in the future. Unlike renewables, natural gas provides affordable, reliable, and abundant energy without the need for hundreds of miles of environmentally harmful transmission lines through pristine habitats.
And in what could be called a positive feedback loop, tech experts claim that AI could help discover new natural gas deposits.
byAmerican Gas Association“AI itself is helping to meet the fuel demand created by AI data centers. The days of drilling exploratory wells in the hope that there might be natural gas at the bottom are long gone. Seismic surveys allow producers to look for detectable deposits of natural gas by generating, recording and analyzing sound waves, a process similar to how bats use echolocation to navigate or ships use sonar to look for potential obstructions. While this process previously required highly trained human analysts to examine the results of seismic surveys, AI trained on the results of previous seismic surveys is now being deployed to find deposits previously missed by human operators.”
Third, we should rethink nuclear power as a stable baseload source of electricity. “Nuclear is the most reliable source of energy, and we’re not even close,” he said.U.S. Department of Energystate.
Nuclear power is far more environmentally friendly than wind or solar: “Wind farms require up to 360 times more land area to produce the same amount of electricity as nuclear power plants…solar power plants require up to 75 times more land area,” the report states.Nuclear Energy Research Institute.
AI races will become a global event. China, Russia And as more nations pour resources into AI programs, the United States cannot allow these adversaries to gain an advantage in the crucial race for AI supremacy.
Chris Thalgo He is editorial director of the Heartland Institute.
