AI needs nuclear power 'breakthrough' to thrive, OpenAI's Altman says

An energy "breakthrough" will be needed if artificial intelligence is to fulfil its potential, according to OpenAI chief Sam Altman.

Altman said earlier in January that the AI industry's energy needs could even depend on nuclear fusion, a technology that humans have not been able to develop but which could, if realised, vastly exceed current energy-production capabilities.

"It motivates us to go invest more in fusion," Altman said at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Scientists and engineers have for decades been trying to figure out nuclear fusion energy generation, which in part mimics how stars such as the sun power themselves, but without making a breakthrough that would make mass-production viable.

Altman's remarks came after projections were published showing AI data centres needing around the same amount of electricity by 2027 as a medium-sized country.

The estimates were published in 2023, less than a year after OpenAI’s ChatGPT was launched for general use, and among the countries mentioned was the Netherlands, which has a gross domestic product of around $1 trillion, is one of the world’s wealthiest nations and has for centuries been a trade and finance powerhouse.

Data centres, which are the back-up for the world’s billions of cloud computing, streaming and social media users, were controversial even before the more recent expansion of so-called "generative" AI, due to the surging pressure they place on power grids and their effect in turn on consumer prices.

In Ireland, where several tech giants have European regional headquarters, data centres’ electricity needs have risen from 5% of the available national supply in 2015 to 18% in 2022. Electricity supplies and prices were further pressured by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which prompted efforts in Europe to wean itself off Moscow's gas exports.