(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to dramatically boost global energy efficiency, accelerate the deployment of cleaner power grids, and broaden access to electricity, according to US Secretary of the Interior Douglas Burgum.

Burgum said the world is now“at a point of convergence between energy abundance and artificial intelligence,” with technology capable of solving challenges once limited by infrastructure or regulation. He made his comments during a fireside chat with Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President of Microsoft, at the Abu Dhabi Global AI Summit.

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“The electrical grid around the world is generally quite inefficient, and we can use AI to get big increases in the efficiency and reliability of the grid,” Burgum explained.“Applying AI against everything, including electricity generation and distribution itself, is a big opportunity.”

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He emphasised that the combination of AI and energy innovation could“lift everybody up,” particularly in developing regions where millions still rely on wood for cooking and heating.“There are millions of people that have got respiratory diseases from cooking with wood. We have an opportunity to lift everybody up - that's part of this energy addition.”

'AI factories' and record investment

The discussion also touched on the massive infrastructure required to power the AI revolution. Burgum pointed to Microsoft's record spending plans as an example of how major technology firms are now building what he described as“AI factories” - large-scale data and compute centres that will underpin future applications.“I think the CapEx budget for next year is $84 billion spending around this stuff. You've got to build power, you've got to build these AI factories,” he said.“We are in an AI arms race. There's a sense of urgency on what speed, to power, to make this, to get to the benefits.”

Smith agreed that as AI becomes a“general-purpose technology,” it will be woven into every aspect of society - from healthcare and education to clean energy and economic development.“Imagine what you want to do - you're probably going to be able to do it better if you can figure out how to harness AI and put it to work,” he said.

Cutting red tape to speed innovation

As a former state governor, Burgum said regulatory bottlenecks were among the biggest obstacles to building data centres and upgrading power grids. He argued that accelerating permitting and lowering barriers for capital deployment must now become national priorities.“In most countries, it takes a lot of time to get a permit to build a data centre or make improvements to the grid,” he said.“We've got to shorten the permitting time... We've got to make sure that it can actually go, because we are in an AI arms race.”

Burgum added that lessons from state-level governance - such as maintaining low taxes and a“friendly regulatory environment” - are being applied federally to help speed up innovation and investment.“We're bringing that same attention to the federal government, because we need to have that in all 50 states.”

Energy diplomacy and global partnerships

Concluding his remarks, Burgum tied America's domestic energy policy to a broader strategy of“energy diplomacy” aimed at ensuring global stability and supporting allies - including in the Middle East.“The US energy policy is about abundance,” he said.“We want to have enough energy to be able to sell energy to our friends and allies, so that our allies don't have to buy from their adversaries.”

He added that increasing energy output from all sources would“fund AI” and“lower the cost of capital,” enabling the next wave of technological growth.“The world is better off when we're getting increasing energy from all sources.”

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