If you want evidence of artificial intelligence’s lifesaving potential, log out of ChatGPT and, instead, check out what’s happening in Virginia Tech’s Civil and Environmental Engineering program. Researchers there are building a model that uses deep learning to predict where flooding from hurricanes will occur.
“Our model, it’s super accurate,” Prof. David Munoz said. “The benefit of our model is that it can predict those extreme water levels in a matter of minutes.” That could help us know where people should evacuate and where they should shelter in place. It could save lives and would certainly save time and money.
The economy or the climate? Why not both?
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That’s just one potential use of AI.
We simply can’t imagine the revolutionary power of AI in 2025, any more than we could imagine the revolutionary power of the personal computer in 1985, the revolutionary power of the internet in 1995, the revolutionary power of the smartphone in 2005, or the revolutionary power of social media in 2015.
While it is impossible to predict how humans will use AI, it’s easy to see that one of two countries will dominate the development of AI. Only the U.S. and China have the resources and the researchers to build effective artificial intelligence. That makes this a military contest as well as an economic one, not unlike the space race of the 1960s.
The Trump administration is said to understand the stakes. “They get it,” an official with the company OpenAI said, “particularly when it comes to making sure the world is going to build out on U.S.-led AI rails, while also using the interest in U.S. AI to get reciprocal investment into U.S.-based infrastructure.”
But the AI revolution will run on a river of electricity. The massive data farms that are the backbone of AI require massive amounts of electricity to operate and to remain cool while doing so. Without energy, AI is powerless.
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This makes it even more important that the U.S. get out in front and shape the entire future of AI. We can power our artificial intelligence with clean electricity, including abundant and reliable natural gas, and drive innovation in that sector at the same time we drive change in the AI sector. That would be a win-win that would pay information benefits and energy benefits for the rest of this century.
China, meanwhile, will try to power AI with dirty coal. In 2023, coal provided almost two-thirds of China’s electricity. As it tries to ramp up AI, expect energy use and coal burning to increase in tandem.
Some of our more astute politicians see the possibilities.
“Pennsylvania has three key assets of the technology revolution: huge energy resources, a skilled workforce, and proximity to major population centers,” Sen. Dave McCormick noted. “It is the second largest energy producing state with the 4th largest natural gas reserves in the entire world and a leading nuclear sector.”
He will host the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit next month in his home state. President Trump plans to attend with Energy Secretary Chris Wright. Perhaps as important, so will Trump’s AI czar, David Sacks, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and others from the high-tech community, along with energy executives from traditional providers.
They will probably discuss Pennsylvania’s leading role in nuclear energy: a reactor at Three Mile Island is set to restart in 2028, delivering zero-emission electricity that can power our information future.
They should also discuss ways to reduce innovation and heavy-handed management from Washington that slows innovation and makes it difficult to launch experimental projects. Cost-competitive renewable energy generation will diversify America’s energy supply and provide families and businesses with affordable, clean power. To get there, though, we need to modernize and streamline regulations and build new transmission lines.
The race to deploy artificial intelligence can be a race to the top that allows the United States to maintain our world-leading position for decades and delivers a cleaner, safer future to everyone. Let’s get in it and win it.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.
