A new report from the International Energy Agency digs into the details of energy and AI, and I think it's worth looking at some of the data to help clear things up. Here are four charts from the report that sum up the crucial points about AI and energy demand. This point is the most obvious, but it bears repeating: AI is exploding, and it's going to lead to higher energy demand from data centers. "AI has gone from an academic pursuit to an industry with trillions of dollars at stake," as the IEA report's executive summary puts it. Data centers used less than 300 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2020.

The global energy industry is facing fundamental shifts in the way it generates, sells and distributes power. The pressure is on to cut carbon emissions and, as a result, methods must be found to manage the increasing gigawatts of unpredictable, weather-dependent renewable energy flowing on to power grids. The cost of electricity is also a concern, not just for consumers, but for governments keen to keep their voters happy. In short, there is a global demand for clean, cheap, reliable energy – and artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used to help meet this need. Enabling the growth of low-carbon, green electricity is an AI application with a potentially huge long-term impact.

Earlier this year, Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and the richest man on Earth, wrote an essay online at "The blog of Bill Gates," to college students graduating worldwide in 2017. One is artificial intelligence (AI). We have only begun to tap into all the ways it will make people's lives more productive and creative. The second is energy, because making it clean, affordable, and reliable will be essential for fighting poverty and climate change." The third field he mentioned was biosciences.