AI is expected to consume massive amounts of additional energy, challenging the belief that advancements in efficiency will reduce energy consumption. This could lead to AI being a source of massive rents for a small number of companies and countries. However, if modern renewable or clean energy systems can be developed in less wealthy countries, more people could benefit in a digital economy.
Are world hunger, pandemics and climate change “fixable” – or is mitigating their impacts the best we can hope for? Is there any point in making them moonshots? In his new book, Big Bets: How Large-Scale Change Really Happens, Rockefeller Foundation President and former Administrator of USAID Rajiv Shah explains how going big impacts motivation – even if the result is a Big Fail. We speak with Shah about the outcome of the recent UN Climate Conference in Dubai (and the overwhelming presence of Big Oil), why he thinks global institutions like the World Bank and the IMF need to be revamped, and whether billionaire philanthropists are the answer to the world’s woes (spoiler: they aren’t).
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