The nabobs behind AI and the immense data centers required to implement the program are trying to figure out a way to produce the electrical power to operate them. Since intermittent energy is now all the rage the search is on for sources of power that don't flood the skies with CO2.
The power that circulates through the chips that are being subsidized for the purposes of AI not only generates phony papers for college grad courses, its energy is converted to heat. This is why your aging desk top computer needs two or more functioning cooling fans to allow you to order things from Amazon. All the energy that goes into a data center will eventually become heat and need to be removed but no mention is made on if it will be recovered and recirculated.
Exowatt, one of the latest attempts at non-hydrocarbon power production, is the hope of famous Sam Altman and others. They realize that relying on existing utilities to supply the energy needed for banal AI products may have serious scheduling issues. It might be better if the data center generated its own power. Since these knowledge factories would use as much electricity as a medium-size city it seems to only make sense that they be in the power production business.
An even more basic question concerns the actual utility of the data centers and AI itself. For whom and what need does AI actually fulfill? How will it's production be monetized? What will be the fact checking process of AI production? If more than one AI system is in operation how will disputes between their statements be resolved? In a democratic society the citizens should have something to say about the entire AI concept and if it should even have a place in day-to-day life. Should any particular technology be adopted simply because it exists?
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