Friends Of Europe Podcasts

As the uptake of Artificial Intelligence (AI) increases in many sectors of the economy, all of that infrastructure has to be supported somehow: that is where data centres come in. The most advanced economies are rushing to scale up their digital infrastructure, yet industry laggard Europe is also behind in this aspect, compared to places like the US and China. These massive facilities use great amounts of electricity, burdening local energy grids to already unsustainable levels in places like Dublin. That is not to speak of the water consumption needed to cool these facilities and the larger implications of the increased integration of AI into our daily lives. Host Sabina Șancu spoke to Thomas Spencer, senior energy analyst at the International Energy Agency, about the characteristics of energy consumption by AI data centres and what the future might have in store for them: more efficiency or a greater burden for our grids. Programme Executive Davide Sofia met with Denis "Jaromil" Roio in Piacenza,