How to ease the energy crunch

KERA's Think

KERA

Society & Culture, 071003, Kera, Think, Krysboyd

4.8 • 861 Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Every time you type a query into your A.I. program, you’re ticking up the cost of your electricity bill. Brian Deese is Institute Innovation Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and he joins guest host John McCaa to discuss how energy hungry A.I. is putting pressure on the grid – potentially to the point of breaking – and the solutions that are being sought to curb this growing problem. His article, co-written with Lisa Hansmann, is “The Coming Electricity Crisis” and was published in Foreign Affairs.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Looking for the stories that matter most to Central Texas, I'm Jerry Kihanal, host of the Austin Signal, your daily dive into the news, music, sports, and culture shaping life in Austin.
0:14.1	We bring you reporting from trusted voices at KUT, KUTX, Texas Standard, and more all in one place. Tune in, stay informed, and get connected every day on the Austin Signal. Austin Signal, weekdays at one on KUT News, or on demand at KUT.org, or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:49.1	From KERA in Dallas, this is Think.
0:51.4	I'm John McKay, filling in for Chris Boyd.
0:58.6	AI and new data centers are a good thing, but they need massive amounts of electrical power,
1:02.5	and their power needs will outpace our aging power grid.
1:08.3	In fact, some argue America could run out of the needed power as soon as next year.
1:13.3	But some solutions are already available. Brian Dees is one of many working on them. From 2021 to 23, he was the director of the National Economic Council under
1:19.5	President Joe Biden. He's now the Institute Innovation Fellow at MIT, where he develops
1:25.5	strategies to promote sustainable economic growth and address climate change.
1:30.8	Brian and Lisa Hansman, a policy fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy, wrote
1:36.3	the coming electricity crisis, what America must do to meet surging demand for Foreign Affairs
1:43.6	magazine. Brian joins us this hour. Brian, welcome to think. Oh, thank you for having America must do to meet surging demand for Foreign Affairs Magazine.
1:44.7	Brian joins us this hour.
1:45.7	Brian, welcome to think.
1:47.2	Oh, thank you for having them.
1:49.2	You've written that after 20 years of just flat demand, electricity use is now growing
1:55.9	at its fastest rate since World War II.
1:59.0	Is that right?
2:00.0	Yeah, it's happening in a way that many people may not be
2:03.4	seeing, but the economy as a whole is turning toward electricity more and more. The way we heat and
2:13.6	cool our homes, the way we move around from point A to B, the way that we manufacture
	...

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