AI is driving cleaner, more efficient access to energy worldwide

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to dramatically boost global energy efficiency, accelerate the deployment of cleaner power grids, and broaden access to electricity, according to US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.

- Haneen Dajani

Burgum said the world is now "at a point of convergence between energy abundance and artificial intelligence," with technology capable of solving challenges once limited by infrastructure or regulation. He made his comments during a fireside chat with Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President of Microsoft, at the Abu Dhabi Global AI Summit.

"The electrical grid around the world is generally quite inefficient, and we can use AI to get big increases in the efficiency and reliability of the grid," Burgum explained. "Applying AI against everything, including electricity generation and distribution itself, is a big opportunity."

He emphasised that the combination of AI and energy innovation could "lift everybody up," particularly in developing regions where millions still rely on wood for cooking and heating. "There are millions of people that have got respiratory diseases from cooking with wood. We have an opportunity to lift everybody up - that's part of this energy addition."