Tech companies have latched on to the concept of artificial intelligence as their next big money-making gambit. But even in its relatively primitive form, AI is using up massive, unsustainable amounts of energy. In order to meet its own demand, tech giant Microsoft is now investing in experimental forms of generating clean electricity, The Washington Post reported.
Most notably, Microsoft is attempting to unlock the key to atomic fusion, also known as nuclear fusion — the thing that powers the sun. Atomic fusion is different from atomic fission, the atom-splitting process used by existing nuclear power plants. Although scientists are hard at work on the fusion problem, they have yet to figure out how to fully harness its power.
If they do, however, the rewards would be enormous. "If nuclear fusion can be replicated on Earth at an industrial scale, it could provide virtually limitless clean, safe, and affordable energy to meet the world's demand," the International Atomic Energy Agency wrote.
That means that if Microsoft-backed projects do indeed figure out how to make an atomic fusion power plant, the company could produce all the AI products its heart desires.
The issue is fairly urgent, though, as many AI operations are already up and running, sucking up huge amounts of energy in the process. Power demands from AI have led the United States to delay the planned retirement of several heavily polluting coal-fired power plants, the Financial Times reported. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reported that tech firms are taking steps to conceal the amount of power they are using from the public.
Some of these firms are attempting to portray AI as part of the solution to the problem that AI itself is causing. The Washington Post quoted Google as saying that using AI, in some capacity, "to accelerate climate action [is] just as crucial as solving for the environmental impact associated with it."
The good news is that new advancements in nuclear technology are being made all the time. One company is working on a process to purify a rare hydrogen isotope essential for most nuclear fusion concepts. Scientists in China have reportedly created an "artificial sun," which could help advance the control capacity of nuclear fusion devices.
It is impossible to predict when these different scientific advancements could come together to form a functioning nuclear fusion plant, but it could happen sooner than many people think.
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