Renewables Bad — Undermines AI

AI uses massive amounts of energy/restrictions threaten AI

Talgo, 6-17, 24, Chris Talgo is editorial director at The Heartland Institute., https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/4721764-ai-will-be-incompatible-with-anti-fossil-energy-activism/

Like it or not, the era of artificial intelligence has arrived, morphing from a science fiction fantasy to the cornerstone of the future world economy. AI and other ground-breaking technologies like quantum computing will soon become so prevalent throughout society that we will wonder how we were able to exist without them. Like cell phones and the internet, AI will fundamentally change our world and the human experience — hopefully for the better. As of now, the largest obstacle to the rise of AI is the misguided energy policy that governments across the West have embarked upon in recent decades. The march toward net-zero carbon dioxide emissions and the insistence that we replace fossil fuel-based energy sources with so-called renewable energy sources like wind and solar poses the largest threat to an AI-based future. In other words, the massive, ill-advised push by climate alarmists to transition almost overnight from reliable and affordable energy sources such as oil, natural gas and coal to not-ready-for-primetime green energy is incompatible with the huge amount of energy that AI will require in the decades to come. Don’t take my word for it. To date, scores of tech experts have said the exact same thing. From Mark Zuckerberg to Elon Musk and many more, there is a consensus among Silicon Valley’s leaders that AI will necessitate a huge increase in demand for dependable and inexpensive energy. ADVERTISING BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, one of the world’s loudest voices for the transition to green energy, has even changed his tune in recent months. “These AI data centers are going to require more power than anything we could ever have imagined,” Fink said.. “We at the G7 do not have enough power.” So, what is the solution? How can we ensure that we have enough energy to power the mega-data centers that AI needs while ensuring we have enough energy to fulfill the needs of American families, businesses and everything else? First, we must stop the foolish movement to transition away from a primarily fossil-fuel based energy grid toward one that relies on unaffordable, unreliable and unscalable wind and solar power. As of this writing, wind and solar account for only 14 percent of the total energy consumed in the U.S. In their present form, wind and solar simply cannot come close to providing enough energy to meet current energy demand, let alone the huge increase that is sure to come when AI data centers begin taking their toll on the nation’s power grid. What’s more, wind and solar can provide energy only intermittently, meaning they can provide power only when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining. AI data centers require a constant flow of energy. They cannot be shut down when it’s cloudy or calm. Second, we should embrace clean-burning natural gas as a viable source of energy to meet the growing demand as more AI data centers are built in the years to come. Unlike renewables, natural gas can provide affordable, reliable and abundant energy. Moreover, it does not require environmentally hazardous transmission lines spanning hundreds of miles through pristine habitats. And, in what can be described as a positive feedback loop, tech experts claim that AI can aid in the discovery of new natural gas deposits. According to the American Gas Association, “AI itself is helping to fill the fuel demand created by AI data centers. The days of drilling an exploratory well in hopes there might be natural gas at the bottom of it are far behind us. Seismic surveys allow producers to search for detectable deposits of natural gas by generating, recording and analyzing sound waves in a process similar to how bats use echolocation to navigate or ships use sonar to search for potential obstacles. While this process previously required highly trained human analysts to examine the seismic survey returns, AI trained on the results of previous seismic surveys is being deployed to find deposits that human operators would have previously missed.” Third, we should reconsider nuclear power as a steady source of baseload energy. “Nuclear power is the most reliable energy source, and it’s not even close,” the U.S. Department of Energy states. Nuclear power is also far more environmentally friendly than wind or solar. “Wind farms require up to 360 times as much land area to produce the same amount of electricity as a nuclear energy facility…Solar photovoltaic facilities require up to 75 times the land area,” reports the Nuclear Energy Institute. The AI race is going to be a worldwide event. China, Russia and many more countries are pouring resources into their AI programs. The U.S. must not allow these adversarial nations to gain the upper hand in the critical competition for AI supremacy.

US leadership on AI critical to prevent military defeat

Singh, 6-13, 24,  Manisha Singh is a Senior Fellow for Artificial Intelligence at the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy and Former Assistant Secretary of State, The U.S. Must Win the AI Race, https://nationalinterest.org/blog/techland/us-must-win-ai-race-211430

With conflict currently present in almost every region of the world, speculation about “World War III” is difficult to avoid. If a calamity of such magnitude were to occur, it would likely be fought partly in the cyberverse. It would also undoubtedly feature the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI). This is one of the many critical reasons that America needs to lead on AI. To paraphrase Mark Zuckerberg’s tech mantra, adversaries are moving fast, and they certainly aren’t afraid to break things. As with most other significant innovations in the last century, AI was born in the United States. Rivals are racing to overtake what exists, either through their own efforts or infringing on creation occurring here. Domestic and global regulatory efforts are well underway. The question of balancing innovation and regulation is not new, but it is original in the case of AI. Perhaps the most defining feature of AI is the existential anxiety it has created. Such apprehension has been a motivating factor in the new rules of the road for the AI super highway. A group of U.S. Senators put forth a “Framework to Mitigate Extreme AI Risks,” which acknowledges the benefits of AI but highlights that it “presents a broad spectrum of risks that could be harmful to the American public.” Both a notification and licensing procedure, as well as the creation of a new regulatory body to be established by Congress, are contemplated. Although the framework isn’t binding, it does provide insight into the evolving thought process of regulators. It comes as no surprise that the European Union (EU) has already enacted a dense, onerous law set forth in 458 pages known as the EU Artificial Intelligence Act. The EU AI Act has met with mixed reactions from member state governments. It appropriately addresses concerns about potential abuse, including authoritarian-like facial recognition techniques. On the other hand, French president Emanuel Macron expressed unease that the burdensome law would disadvantage France against American, Chinese, and even British innovation, as EU rules no longer bind the United Kingdom. AI competition is extreme in both the commercial and security spheres. Companies and governments are racing to perfect the face of the future. Although enacted in the EU, the effects of its AI Act will be felt by American companies as it’s well established that cyberspace and efforts to regulate it are indeed borderless. As the first of its kind, the EU is heralding its AI Act as a model. U.S. regulators, however, should carefully evaluate the innovation-regulation balance. As noted above, America’s enemies developing AI under state control will place no limits on how quickly or mercilessly they will develop and deploy AI to gain a dystopian advantage. Efforts to overtake America happen everywhere all at once. The U.S. military doesn’t currently have the “peace through strength” numbers needed to maintain its defensive might. Meanwhile, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is using AI to perfect targeting and missile guidance systems. Recent International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports of Iran’s increased uranium enrichment caused alarm bells to ring in both London and Paris. Washington and Brussels should be collectively well beyond concerned by now. Add to the mix the possibility of a new axis of cyber-evil, including both state and non-state actors. China already has an advantage in possession of the natural resources required to create AI infrastructure. Its economy and its military are, at present, second to America. AI is a vehicle through which China can assert dominance at the expense of the Western world. The institutions established after the last world war to prevent such a mass catastrophe from happening again are passing resolutions. These are pieces of paper on which dictatorships and democratically elected governments alike agree to use AI for good and collectively police its malfeasance. The United Nations passed a resolution to promote “safe, secure and trustworthy” AI to address the world’s challenges. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) convened an “AI for Good Summit” with aspiration goals as its name implies. History dictates that in global conflict, the most powerful tools will prevail. It is, therefore, incumbent on U.S. innovators to win the AI race and achieve the goal of “peace through strength.” Only then can a course be set to maintain stability and prevent global atrocity by actors determined to use AI in a way that will redefine the concept of war.