Artificial Intelligence is something that’s all around us in our daily lives. And even if we do use it, whether that’s to search for a recipe online, make a funny photo, or ask it to help with our homework, every task that AI does uses power. That power is electricity. Around the world there are thousands of data centres hosting computers that process all our requests. And as those tasks get more sophisticated, and AI becomes Super Intelligent, they will need even more electricity. But as Super AI develops, could it become so intelligent that it is able to solve the very problems it creates? Contributors: Dr Mark Van Rijmenam, a strategic futurist Kate Crawford, research professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and senior principal researcher at Microsoft Research in New York Sam Young, AI Manager at Energy Systems Catapult Rose Mutiso, research director of the Energy for Growth Hub Presented by David Baker Produced by Louise Clarke Researched by Katie Morgan Edited by Tara McDermott Technically Produced by Craig Boardman
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Welcome to the inquiry on the BBC World Service with me, David Baker.
Each week, one question, four expert witnesses and an answer feel underneath your laptop after you've been using it for a while, chances are it's warm.
That's heat produced by the thousands of calculations that your laptop is doing to keep that spreadsheet up to date.
Display your emails and yes, listen to this program on the BBC World Service.
And even though there are pretty much no mo parts in a modern laptop, all that activity needs energy, which is why your battery seems to drain so quickly when you've been hard at work.
Now imagine a network of millions of computers around the world, all connected and working together to produce, not spreadsheets, but artificial intelligence algorithms that could help stop global warming, do the jobs we humans hate to do, and even develop medicines that could cure everyone of cancer.
How much power would we need to operate that?
Not to mention to run the massive cooling systems that we'd need to stop it overheating.
So for the inquiry this week, we're asking, will we have enough energy to power AI?
Part 1 AI changing the world.
Artificial intelligence is the name we give to super advanced computer programs that can do much more than what we're used to using computers for.
They can process huge amounts of data and work out ways to do things that are far beyond the capability of the human brain.
And they're already delivering amazing breakthroughs.
Our first witness is Mark Van Riemen, a strategic futurist based in Sydney, Australia, who researches the effect emerging technologies are having on the world.
There are numerous ways how we already benefit from AI.
Right now, a clear use case is healthcare.