At the heart of the explosion in artificial intelligence, there are data centers. Companies are pouring money into these facilities to train and run AI models—and with this massive buildout comes a remarkable appetite for electricity. In the first installment of our two-parter on data centers and the U.S. energy system, Prof. Costa Samaras of Carnegie Mellon University and Dr. Vijay Gadepally of MIT walk us through some of the challenges posed by this surging electricity demand. And they discuss why our response to this moment matters for power grids and people right now, and for the long-term work of tackling climate change.

For a deeper dive and additional resources related to this episode, visit: https://climate.mit.edu/podcasts/e10-data-centers-and-race-power-ai-part-1.

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