The Green Room podcast
Will energy decide the AI race?
We use AI in a digital world - but its future may depend on the physical one.
What does it take to build an AI-ready future?
“Everybody wants all of the benefits of AI. Nobody wants to look at it at the end of their garden.”
Behind every prompt, agent and model, sits a system that needs to be built, funded and powered.
And as organisations and countries race to adopt AI, the demand for access is accelerating. So could a technology that’s built to allow limitless thinking, end up limited by a country’s network and ability to build?
The future of AI depends on compute capacity. That depends on infrastructure. And that depends on energy. And it’s those elements which determine the price we all pay to use it.
Watch below, or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Read the transcript here.
I think we need to do better at talking about the benefits of data centre build, not just the use of AI, but actually how they can make a contribution in that area next to that city at the end of your back garden.
Caroline Brown – partner, AI for Infrastructure and Sustainability, Deloitte
A physical AI trade-off starts to appear
“If AI is the transformational capability, the data centres and all of the gubbins associated there, think of those as the factories that help the AI do the doing,” says Caroline Brown.
We type a question and receive an answer, we ask an agent to go away and do a job for us, we set an outline and get a project back. It’s easy to forget that behind each use of AI lies a system of physical needs. Data centres, energy, grid connections and more.
As AI adoption accelerates, access to those physical resources is becoming a strategic question that faces both businesses and countries. Caroline explains the infrastructure needs for AI, an interconnected web with high demands, but are we thinking about it enough?
Deloitte’s Tom Cope raised an important question for organisations: “everyone is targeting AI usage in their commercial strategies in the future, or their operational strategies. They're going to have to think about their requirements in the context of, where are they putting that compute?”
As AI becomes more embedded within firms, firms will have to consider the trade-off between capacity, capability and cost. “Higher spec, possibly higher cost data centres may have the capacity, but actually the proportional cost of that versus what your use case might be to run something a bit more simple, may not be appropriate. But then you’re competing in a much more crowded, cheaper end of the compute market.”
AI brings more than technological benefits
As AI adoption accelerates, some new questions appear that we can’t ignore. Are we ready to build the infrastructure that’s needed? And is the energy-intensive technology a harm to sustainable goals?
Data centres may not be pretty to look at, but Caroline Brown believes we’re not doing a good enough job telling the story of the benefits they also bring.
“They can make a contribution in that area next to that city at the end of your back garden. There are examples where that heat is being used to provide very, very low-cost affordable heating for homes and businesses, heating swimming pools, heating that's used for industrial processes. So certainly during the construction phase, I don't think anybody would question that there are jobs that are created. But then once the data centre moves into operations, there are ongoing roles and employment for people in those areas.”
And when it comes to energy usage – the relationship isn’t one-directional.
As Caroline Brown explains in this clip, AI is able to optimise our energy systems while it’s also being used to aid the development of new low-carbon solutions. So, despite its energy use, AI could help us use less energy and provide net-benefits in our journey towards net-zero.
Our AI use is digital. The foundations are physical.
Hear Deloitte’s Caroline Brown and Tom Cope explain the infrastructure, power and investment behind AI and how the UK can gain a national advantage by laying the key foundations for AI growth.
What does it take to build an AI-ready future? Who’s responsible for ensuring we have enough funding and planning in place to make it happen? And how do we balance the increasing demand for AI with the impact it has on people, communities and the environment?
Watch below, or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Read the transcript here.
I think we're going to see an evolution over the next three years around how capabilities are priced as we reach more of that capacity and it's a lot more constrained.
Tom Cope – partner, Infrastructure and Capital Projects, Deloitte
Let’s make this work.
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