Artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly transformed industries, revolutionizing everything from healthcare to transportation, finance, and creative arts. As businesses and consumers increasingly rely on AI for decision-making, automation, and enhanced user experiences, questions about the sustainability of its power and impacts—both environmentally and economically—have come to the forefront. This article examines how AI is powered and whether it can be considered an environmentally and economically sustainable technology, with a particular focus on the role of nuclear power plants and the associated risks.

Understanding the Power Behind AI

At its core, AI requires significant computational power, which comes primarily from data centers equipped with powerful processors, including central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs). With advancements in machine learning (ML) and deep learning, which rely on large datasets to “train” algorithms, the energy consumption of these data centers has surged.

1. Computational Requirements: …