White House Hosts Tech Leaders to Discuss AI Development and Power Needs

Tech, US officials discuss AI development, power needs at White House

The meeting shows that the White House recognizes the priority of infrastructure to create jobs and help guarantee that the benefits of AI are widely distributed, OpenAI said. "OpenAI believes infrastructure is destiny and that building additional infrastructure in the US is critical to the country's industrial policy and economic future," a company spokesperson said.

Tech, US officials discuss AI development, power needs at White House

Led by the National Economic Council, the National Security Council and others, the task force will coordinate policies to advance data center development while weighing economic, national security, and environmental goals, the White House said. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google senior executive Ruth Porat and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei were among the tech company representatives who attended the meeting. The White House said participants discussed how to meet clean energy, permitting and workforce requirements for developing data centers and power infrastructure needed for advanced AI operations. Generative AI, or GenAI, can create text, photos and videos in response to open-ended prompts. It has generated buzz about its potential uses such as relieving mundane tasks but also prompted fears about potential misuse. AI can strain the energy industry as U.S. technology companies seek to secure a shrinking supply of electricity for their rapidly expanding data centers. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo also participated in the meeting. Granholm told Reuters in June that President Joe Biden's administration was asking technology companies to invest in new climate-friendly power generation to cover their surging demand. The surge in demand from AI could complicate Biden's target of decarbonizing the power sector by 2035 to fight climate change. "President Biden and Vice President Harris are committed to deepening U.S. leadership in AI by ensuring data centers are built in the United States while ensuring the technology is developed responsibly," said White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson. National security adviser Jake Sullivan as well as White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard also took part, along with top Biden administration climate officials. The meeting shows that the White House recognizes the priority of infrastructure to create jobs and help guarantee that the benefits of AI are widely distributed, OpenAI said. "OpenAI believes infrastructure is destiny and that building additional infrastructure in the U.S. is critical to the country's industrial policy and economic future," a company spokesperson said. (Reporting by Susan Heavey and Timothy Gardner; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Jonathan Oatis and Diane Craft)

Tech, US officials to discuss AI development, White House says

National security adviser Jake Sullivan as well as White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard will also take part, along with top Biden administration climate officials. CNN first reported the meeting. "President Biden and Vice President Harris are committed to deepening U.S. leadership in AI by ensuring data centers are built in the United States while ensuring the technology is developed responsibly," said White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will also meet with the executives. Granholm told Reuters in June that President Joe Biden's administration was asking technology companies to invest in new climate-friendly power generation to cover their surging demand. The surge in demand from AI could complicate Biden's target of decarbonizing the power sector by 2035 to fight climate change. The meeting shows that the White House recognizes the priority of infrastructure to create jobs and help guarantee that the benefits of AI are widely distributed, OpenAI said. "OpenAI believes infrastructure is destiny and that building additional infrastructure in the U.S. is critical to the country's industrial policy and economic future," a company spokesperson said. Generative AI, or GenAI, can create text, photos and videos in response to open-ended prompts. It has generated buzz about its potential uses such as relieving mundane tasks but also prompted fears about potential misuse. The meeting will also focus on fostering public-private work in advancing AI and on workforce and permitting needs associated with the technology. AI also strains the energy and metals industries as U.S. technology companies seek to secure a shrinking supply of electricity for their rapidly expanding data centers. (Reporting by Susan Heavey and Timothy Gardner; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Jonathan Oatis)

Tech industry titans meet with White House officials to discuss AI energy needs

Sept. 12 (UPI) -- Key Biden Administration personnel met with leaders of the biggest technology companies at the White House on Thursday to discuss new infrastructure needed to support artificial intelligence, according to multiple reports. Leaders of tech industry titans OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, Microsoft and Google met with Cabinet members such as Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to discuss the need for more AI data centers and the beefed-up energy infrastructure that will be needed to supply them, according to White House sources cited by CNN, CNBC and The Hill. Among those in attendance were Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google Chief Investment Officer Ruth Porat and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, the sources said. Reflecting the importance AI infrastructure needs hold for national security, the environment and many other sectors, the meeting also reportedly included U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, White House climate advisers Ali Zaidi and John Podesta and White House chief of staff Jeff Zients. The unannounced meeting came as AI has become the biggest driver of technology businesses around the world and one the prime focuses of Wall Street investors. As AI is incorporated into more and more applications, concerns about its energy-hungry nature and the ability of U.S. utilities supply the growing number of data centers needed to power them have multiplied. Investment bankers Goldman Sachsreported in May that the AI revolution is expected to boost data center power demand by 160% within the next six years. At present, data centers worldwide consume 1% to-2% of overall power, but this percentage will likely rise to 3% to 4% by the end of the decade, driving a binge of electricity growth unlike anything seen in a generation. Along the way, the carbon dioxide emissions of data centers likely will more than double between 2022 and 2030, they estimated. That's because a single ChatGPT query requires 2.9 watt-hours of electricity, compared with 0.3 watt-hours for a Google search, according to a study by the Electric Power Research Institute. The rapid growth of AI power demand is highlighting the need for data center efficiency improvements and increased flexibility, closer coordination between data center developers and electric companies and the need for beefed-up investments in power grids so that AI can be accommodated "without negatively impacting other customers," the study notes. Goldman Sachs estimated the overall increase in data center power consumption from AI to be on the order of 200 terawatt-hours per year between 2023 and 2030, eventually comprising about 19% of all data center power demand. "President [Joe] Biden and Vice President [Kamala] Harris are committed to deepening U.S. leadership in AI by ensuring data centers are built in the United States while ensuring the technology is developed responsibly," a White House spokesperson said in a statement issued to media outlets.

Top AI business leaders meet with Biden administration to discuss the emerging industry's needs

WASHINGTON -- Top Biden administration officials on Thursday discussed the future of artificial intelligence at a meeting with a group of executives from OpenAI, Google, Nvidia, Microsoft and other companies. The focus was on building data centers in the United States and the infrastructure needed to develop the technology. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at the daily press briefing that the meeting focused on increasing public-private collaboration and the workforce and permitting needs of the industry. The computer power for the sector will likely depend on reliable access to electricity, so some utility companies were also part of the meeting to discuss power grid needs. The emergence of AI holds a mix of promise and peril: The automatically generated text, images, audio and video could help to increase economic productivity but it also has the potential to displace some workers. It also could serve as both a national security tool and a threat to guard against. President Joe Biden last October signed an executive order to address the develop of the technology, seeking to establish protections through steps such as the watermarking of AI content and addressing consumer rights issues. Attending the meeting for the administration were: White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

OpenAI, Nvidia, Microsoft leaders meet with Biden administration to discuss the emerging industry's needs

Top Biden administration officials on Thursday discussed the future of artificial intelligence at a meeting with a group of executives from OpenAI, Nvidia, Microsoft and other companies. The focus was on building data centres in the United States and the infrastructure needed to develop the technology. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at the daily press briefing that the meeting focused on increasing public-private collaboration and the workforce and permitting needs of the industry. The computer power for the sector will likely depend on reliable access to electricity, so the utility companies Exelon and AES were also part of the meeting to discuss power grid needs. The emergence of AI holds a mix of promise and peril: The automatically generated text, images, audio and video could help to increase economic productivity but it also has the potential to displace some workers. It also could serve as both a national security tool and a threat to guard against. Elon Musk voices support for California bill requiring safety tests on AI models President Joe Biden last October signed an executive order to address the develop of the technology, seeking to establish protections through steps such as the watermarking of AI content and addressing consumer rights issues. Attending the meeting for the administration were White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, among others. Social platform X edits AI chatbot after election officials warn that it spreads misinformation Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Alphabet President and Chief Investment Officer Ruth Porat, Meta Chief Operating Officer Javier Olivan, and Microsoft President and Vice Chairman Brad Smith were among the corporate attendees. Matt Garman, the CEO of AWS, a subsidiary of Amazon, also attended. The company said in a statement that attendees discussed modernising the nation's utility grid, expediting permits for new projects and ensuring that carbon-free energy projects are integrated into the grid. Published - September 13, 2024 11:26 am IST Read Comments

OpenAI, Nvidia Executives Discuss AI Infrastructure Needs With Biden Officials

(Bloomberg) -- OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman and Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang met with senior Biden administration officials and other industry leaders at the White House on Thursday to discuss how to fill the massive infrastructure needs for artificial intelligence projects. On the tech side, attendees also included Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google President Ruth Porat and Microsoft Corp. President Brad Smith, according to people familiar with the meeting, which also had representatives from the energy sector. Government officials included Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, according to the people. The goal, according to a White House official, was to boost public-private partnerships around the development of AI data centers in the US. Topics included permitting, workforce, power demands and economic impacts of the facilities, people familiar with the meeting said. OpenAI, for example, plans to spend tens of billions of dollars on a domestic AI infrastructure push that spans data centers, energy capacity and transmission and semiconductor manufacturing -- with investment from around the globe. Company executives have been meeting with government officials for months about a range of issues related to the initiative, including national security concerns that could be associated with foreign capital. "OpenAI believes infrastructure is destiny and that building additional infrastructure in the US is critical to the country's industrial policy and economic future," OpenAI said in a statement Thursday. The company highlighted the economic benefits of investing in US data center projects, including a possible 40,000 jobs across a number of US states. OpenAI pointed to similar investments by China, which aims to be a global AI leader by the end of the decade. Porat called robust US energy infrastructure crucial to ensuring US leadership in the emerging field of AI. "Today's White House convening was an important opportunity to advance the work required to modernize and expand the capacity of America's energy grid," she said in a statement. Anthropic and Microsoft declined to comment. The AI-fueled surge in US data center construction coincides with a broader manufacturing boost spurred by the Chips and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act -- the signature subsidy programs for semiconductors and clean energy enacted in 2022 under President Joe Biden. Those investments, along with data center expansion and other factors, are expected to drive electricity demand up by 15% to 20% over the next decade, according to the Energy Department. Data centers could consume as much as 9% of US electricity generation annually by 2030, up from 4% of total load in 2023, according to a report in May by the nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute. The Biden administration has said renewables such as wind and solar, as well as battery storage and energy efficiency gains, are some of the best ways to meet growing data center energy demand because they are rapidly scalable and cost competitive. "Near-term data center driven electricity demand growth is an opportunity to accelerate the build out of clean energy solutions, improve demand flexibility, and modernize the grid while maintaining affordability," the Energy Department said in a blog post last month. However, the agency, which is set to release an assessment of energy consumption by data centers by years' end, cautioned that projections of growth in electricity demand "continue to evolve due to developing use cases" and other factors.

Top AI business leaders meet with Biden administration to discuss the emerging industry's needs

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Top Biden administration officials on Thursday discussed the future of artificial intelligence at a meeting with a group of executives from OpenAI, Google, Nvidia, Microsoft and other companies. The focus was on building data centers in the United States and the infrastructure needed to develop the technology. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at the daily press briefing that the meeting focused on increasing public-private collaboration and the workforce and permitting needs of the industry. The computer power for the sector will likely depend on reliable access to electricity, so some utility companies were also part of the meeting to discuss power grid needs. The emergence of AI holds a mix of promise and peril: The automatically generated text, images, audio and video could help to increase economic productivity but it also has the potential to displace some workers. It also could serve as both a national security tool and a threat to guard against. President Joe Biden last October signed an executive order to address the develop of the technology, seeking to establish protections through steps such as the watermarking of AI content and addressing consumer rights issues. Attending the meeting for the administration were: White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

Top AI business leaders meet with Biden administration to discuss the emerging industry's needs

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Top Biden administration officials on Thursday discussed the future of artificial intelligence at a meeting with a group of executives from OpenAI, Google, Nvidia, Microsoft and other companies. The focus was on building data centers in the United States and the infrastructure needed to develop the technology. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at the daily press briefing that the meeting focused on increasing public-private collaboration and the workforce and permitting needs of the industry. The computer power for the sector will likely depend on reliable access to electricity, so some utility companies were also part of the meeting to discuss power grid needs. The emergence of AI holds a mix of promise and peril: The automatically generated text, images, audio and video could help to increase economic productivity but it also has the potential to displace some workers. It also could serve as both a national security tool and a threat to guard against. President Joe Biden last October signed an executive order to address the develop of the technology, seeking to establish protections through steps such as the watermarking of AI content and addressing consumer rights issues. Attending the meeting for the administration were: White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

Top tech, U.S. officials to discuss powering AI -CNN

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Executives from Open AI, Google and Anthropic will meet with senior U.S. officials at the White House on Thursday to discuss the energy resources and infrastructure needed to power AI, CNN reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. Open AI CEO Sam Altman, Google senior executive Ruth Porat and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei are among the tech company representatives expected to attend as well as Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, according to the CNN. National security adviser Jake Sullivan as well as White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard will attend, along with top Biden administration climate officials, CNN said. Representatives for the White House and the Department of Energy could not immediately be reached for comment. "President Biden and Vice President Harris are committed to deepening US leadership in AI by ensuring data centers are built in the United States while ensuring the technology is developed responsibly," White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson said in the CNN report. Generative artificial intelligence, or AI, can create text, photos and videos in response to open-ended prompts. It has generated buzz about its potential uses such as relieving mundane tasks but also prompted fears about potential misuse. It also affects the energy and metals industry as U.S. technology companies seek to secure a shrinking supply of electricity for their rapidly expanding artificial intelligence and cloud computing data centers. (Reporting by Susan Heavey and Timothy Gardner; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Top AI Business Leaders Meet With Biden Administration to Discuss the Emerging Industry's Needs

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Top Biden administration officials on Thursday discussed the future of artificial intelligence at a meeting with a group of executives from OpenAI, Google, Nvidia, Microsoft and other companies. The focus was on building data centers in the United States and the infrastructure needed to develop the technology. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at the daily press briefing that the meeting focused on increasing public-private collaboration and the workforce and permitting needs of the industry. The computer power for the sector will likely depend on reliable access to electricity, so some utility companies were also part of the meeting to discuss power grid needs. The emergence of AI holds a mix of promise and peril: The automatically generated text, images, audio and video could help to increase economic productivity but it also has the potential to displace some workers. It also could serve as both a national security tool and a threat to guard against. President Joe Biden last October signed an executive order to address the develop of the technology, seeking to establish protections through steps such as the watermarking of AI content and addressing consumer rights issues. Attending the meeting for the administration were: White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Top tech, U.S. officials to discuss powering AI -CNN

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Executives from Open AI, Google and Anthropic will meet with senior U.S. officials at the White House on Thursday to discuss the energy resources and infrastructure needed to power AI, CNN reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. Open AI CEO Sam Altman, Google senior executive Ruth Porat and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei are among the tech company representatives expected to attend as well as Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, according to the CNN.

NVIDIA, OpenAI, Microsoft & Google Executives Meets US Government Officials To Discuss AI & Datacenter Development

NVIDIA, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google executives reportedly met with executives from The White House to discuss the future of AI and the massive infrastructure scalability will require. AI, as a technology, is now becoming a critical aspect of human life, and it has driven automation in a way we never imagined. Amid this, every other mainstream tech company is moving quickly towards adjusting their business to integrate the "AI hype," which is why firms like Microsoft and NVIDIA have witnessed massive market momentum. Now, the US government has taken an interest in the AI boom, inviting tech executives to discuss the prospects of the technology and the path to move forward, eventually becoming a dominant "AI nation." BNN Bloomberg reports that the meeting included OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman and NVIDIA's CEO Jensen Huang. In addition, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google President Ruth Porat, Amazon's Cloud Chief Matt Garman, and Microsoft's President Brad Smith were present, which shows how big of an event this was. By including all mainstream companies, the US is proving that the nation is eager to be one step ahead of all others. After the talks, the Biden administration created an interagency task force, mainly targeting the development of large-scale AI clusters in the nation. The key objective of this task force would be to aid in the process of establishing data centers in the nation, and to catalyze the process; the US government is planning to ramp up the energy supply of the country, with the Energy Department providing data-center developers with loans, grants and tax credits, hence fueling the overall process. The need for high AI computing power has become a necessity for the AI markets to move forward, which is why companies like OpenAI are focusing upon building gigantic AI clusters, that not only require tremendous electricity supply, but unimaginable financial resources as well. It was claimed a few months ago that Microsoft and OpenAI were reportedly planning to build an AI supercomputer worth $100 billion that was said to be nuclear-powered, and this isn't absurd at all, given that electricity requirements are so high that even companies like Oracle are shifting to nuclear alternatives. AI has revolutionized every sector of the world, and the technology still holds immense potential, transforming the lives of individuals to something unimaginable.

White House officials to meet with AI leaders about data center development

Senior Biden administration officials will meet with key leaders in the artificial intelligence (AI) space Thursday to discuss the development of data centers for the power-hungry technology, according to a White House official. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google's chief investment officer, Ruth Porat, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei will be in attendance, a source familiar with the meeting told The Hill. The meeting was first reported by CNN. The industry leaders will be joined by Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, as well as several senior White House officials, including White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. The meeting will focus on boosting collaboration between the public and private sectors to maintain American leadership on AI, as well as meeting the technology's workforce, permitting and infrastructure demands, the White House official said. "President Biden and Vice President Harris are committed to deepening U.S. leadership in A.I. by ensuring data-centers are built in the United States while ensuring the technology is developed responsibly," White House Spokesperson Robyn Patterson said in a statement. AI requires significant amounts of energy. A single request to OpenAI's ChatGPT uses nearly 10 times as much energy as a typical Google search, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). And image generation requires more than 60 times the energy of text generation, a study by Carnegie Mellon University and AI startup Hugging Face found. AI's increased energy demands have thrown a wrench in major tech companies' efforts to rein in their emissions. Google's emissions have risen 48 percent since 2019, while Microsoft's emissions have grown 29 percent since 2020. Both have pointed to AI.

Top AI leaders meet with White House officials

In attendance on the industry side were OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft President and Vice Chairman Brad Smith and Nvidia President and CEO Jensen Huang, according to a readout from the White House. Alphabet President and Chief Investment Officer Ruth Porat, Meta Chief Operating Officer Javier Olivan, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman also participated in the meeting. They were joined on the govenrment side by Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, as well as several senior White House officials, including White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, national economic adviser Lael Brainard and national security adviser Jake Sullivan. The White House convened the meeting to discuss the clean energy, permitting and work force needs for developing the large-scale data centers and power infrastructure required for AI. Following the roundtable, the administration announced several new initiatives focused on building out data center capacity, including a Task Force on AI Datacenter Infrastructure and efforts to scale up technical assistance for data center permitting. "These actions will enable datacenters catalyzing the industries of the future to be built here in the United States by American workers," the White House said in its readout. Google's Porat described Thursday's meeting as an "important opportunity to advance the work required to modernize and expand the capacity of America's energy grid." An AWS spokesperson similarly said in a statement that it "appreciated the opportunity" to "discuss efforts to ensure AI development in the US and the needs to modernize the nation's utility grid, expedite permitting for new projects, and ensure timely grid connections for carbon-free energy projects." AI requires significant amounts of energy. A single request to OpenAI's ChatGPT uses nearly 10 times as much energy as a typical Google search, according to the International Energy Agency. And image generation requires more than 60 times the energy of text generation, a study by Carnegie Mellon University and AI startup Hugging Face found. AI's increased energy demands have thrown a wrench in major tech companies' efforts to rein in their emissions. Google's emissions have risen 48 percent since 2019, while Microsoft's emissions have grown 29 percent since 2020. Both have pointed to AI.

Top tech, US officials to discuss powering AI, White House says

National security adviser Jake Sullivan as well as White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard will also take part, along with top Biden administration climate officials. CNN first reported the meeting. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will also meet with the executives. Granholm told Reuters in June that President Joe Biden's administration was asking technology companies to invest in new climate-friendly power generation to cover their surging demand. The surge in demand from AI could complicate Biden's target of decarbonizing the power sector by 2035 to fight climate change. "President Biden and Vice President Harris are committed to deepening U.S. leadership in AI by ensuring data centers are built in the United States while ensuring the technology is developed responsibly," said White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson. Generative AI, or GenAI, can create text, photos and videos in response to open-ended prompts. It has generated buzz about its potential uses such as relieving mundane tasks but also prompted fears about potential misuse. The meeting will focus on fostering public-private work in advancing AI and on workforce and permitting needs associated with the technology. AI also strains the energy and metals industries as U.S. technology companies seek to secure a shrinking supply of electricity for their rapidly expanding data centers. (Reporting by Susan Heavey and Timothy Gardner; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Jonathan Oatis)

OpenAI, Nvidia Executives Discuss AI Infrastructure Needs With Biden Officials

OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman and Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang met with senior Biden administration officials and other industry leaders at the White House on Thursday to discuss how to fill the massive infrastructure needs for artificial intelligence projects. On the tech side, attendees also included Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google President Ruth Porat and Microsoft Corp. President Brad Smith, according to people familiar with the meeting, which also had representatives from the energy sector. Government officials included Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, according to the people.

US officials to meet with top tech executives on powering AI -CNN

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Executives from Open AI, Google and Anthropic will meet with senior U.S. officials at the White House on Thursday to discuss the energy resources and infrastructure needed to power AI, CNN reported citing a person familiar with the matter. Open AI CEO Sam Altman, Google senior executive Ruth Porat and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei are among the tech company representatives expected to attend as well as Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, CNN said.

Top tech, US officials to discuss powering AI, source says

Granholm told Reuters in June that President Joe Biden's administration was asking technology companies to invest in new climate-friendly power generation to cover their surging demand. The surge in demand from AI could complicate Biden's target of decarbonizing the power sector by 2035 to fight climate change. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google senior executive Ruth Porat and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei are among the tech company representatives expected to attend, according to CNN, which first reported the meeting. National security adviser Jake Sullivan as well as White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard will also take part, along with top Biden administration climate officials, CNN said. "President Biden and Vice President Harris are committed to deepening U.S. leadership in AI by ensuring data centers are built in the United States while ensuring the technology is developed responsibly," White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson said in the CNN report. Generative AI, or GenAI, can create text, photos and videos in response to open-ended prompts. It has generated buzz about its potential uses such as relieving mundane tasks but also prompted fears about potential misuse. It also affects the energy and metals industry as U.S. technology companies seek to secure a shrinking supply of electricity for their rapidly expanding AI and cloud computing data centers. (Reporting by Susan Heavey and Timothy Gardner; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Jonathan Oatis)

AI has an energy crisis. Sam Altman, Jensen Huang, and others went to the White House about it

Leading tech executives reportedly met at the White House on Thursday to discuss the intense energy usage of the artificial intelligence technologies their companies are working on. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei, and Google (GOOGL) president Ruth Porat were expected to be at the meeting with White House officials, CNN first reported. Nvidia (NVDA) chief executive Jensen Huang and "several" power and utility companies were also part of the meeting, CNBC later said, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. The tech executives, White House officials, and American energy companies reportedly discussed how the public and private sectors can work together on infrastructure to sustainably support AI's intense energy consumption. Discussions also reportedly covered data center capacity and semiconductor manufacturing. Tech giants' emissions are climbing as they race to build more advanced -- and increasing power-hungry -- AI tools. At risk are the climate goals laid out several years ago by companies including Google and Microsoft (MSFT). Nvidia's highly anticipated Blackwell AI chip, for example, consumes 1,200 watts of electricity -- almost enough to power an average home in the U.S. Meanwhile, the share of U.S. electricity consumption by data centers, where most AI training and processing takes place, is expected to rise to 9.1% by the end of the decade -- over double what it is now. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, and other Biden-Harris administration officials were set to attend, according to CNN, but neither the president nor vice president were expected at the meeting. "President Biden and Vice President Harris are committed to deepening U.S. leadership in AI by ensuring data centers are built in the United States while ensuring the technology is developed responsibly," Robyn Patterson, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement shared with CNN. Neither the White House, OpenAI, nor Google immediately responded to a request for comment. An Anthropic spokesperson confirmed Amodei's attendance with Quartz, while Nvidia declined to comment. "This industry is going to be producing intelligence, and what it takes is energy," Huang told CNBC after the meeting. "So we've got to make sure that everybody understands the needs coming, the opportunities of it, the challenges of it, and doing it in the most efficient and scalable way we can." Huang also told CNBC that Nvidia is currently entering the full-volume production phase for Blackwell. The Nvidia leader said demand for its Blackwell chips is so high that customers are starting to feel "tense," during a conversation with Goldman Sachs (GS) chief executive David Solomon at the firm's Communacopia + Technology Conference on Wednesday.

OpenAI, Anthropic and Google execs met with White House to talk AI energy and data centers

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman during a fireside chat organized by Softbank Ventures Asia in Seoul, South Korea, on Friday, June 9, 2023. Leaders at OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, Google and several American power and utility companies met Thursday morning at the White House to discuss the future of artificial intelligence energy infrastructure in the U.S., sources familiar with the meeting told CNBC. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Google president Ruth Porat were all in attendance at the meeting, which focused on bringing the public and private sectors together to talk about artificial intelligence's energy usage, data center capacity, semiconductor manufacturing and grid capacity, sources familiar with the meeting confirmed. An OpenAI spokesperson told CNBC that the company believes building additional infrastructure in the U.S. is critical to the country's industrial policy and economic future. "We appreciate the White House convening this meeting as it is a recognition of the priority of infrastructure to create jobs, help guarantee that the benefits of AI are widely distributed, and ensure America will continue to be at the forefront of AI innovation," the OpenAI spokesperson said. OpenAI shared its economic impact analysis with Biden-Harris administration officials including estimated job and GDP impacts of building a large-scale data center in sample states across the U.S. like Wisconsin, California, Texas and Pennsylvania, a source familiar told CNBC. CNN first reported on the meeting. "President Biden and Vice President Harris are committed to deepening U.S. leadership in A.I. by ensuring data-centers are built in the United States while ensuring the technology is developed responsibly," White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson told CNBC. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm were also in attendance Thursday, according to a source familiar. The meeting included U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan, national climate advisor Ali Zaidi, domestic policy advisor to the vice president Kristine Lucius and senior advisor to the president for international climate policy John Podesta. White House chief of staff Jeff Zients and White House deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed were also in attendance, per a source. The news follows an announcement in August that OpenAI and Anthropic will let the U.S. AI Safety Institute test their new models before releasing them to the public, following increased concerns in the industry about safety and ethics in AI. The institute, housed within the Department of Commerce at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), said in a press release at the time that it would get "access to major new models from each company prior to and following their public release." The group was established after the Biden-Harris administration issued the U.S. government's first-ever executive order on artificial intelligence in October 2023, requiring new safety assessments, equity and civil rights guidance and research on AI's impact on the labor market. OpenAI is reportedly in talks to raise a funding round that would value the company at more than $150 billion. Anthropic, founded by ex-OpenAI research executives and employees, was most recently valued at $18.4 billion. Anthropic counts Amazon as a leading investor, while OpenAI is heavily backed by Microsoft.

Nvidia, OpenAI CEOs Talk to Biden Officials About Energy Needs For AI

The CEOs of Nvidia, Microsoft, CoreWeave, Amazon Web Services and OpenAI met with the U.S. secretaries of energy and commerce at the White House on Thursday to discuss how the energy grid would handle growing power needs from artificial intelligence and how to speed up the development of AI-focused data centers, according to a government press release. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC after

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang touts the 'beginning of a new industrial revolution'

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has spoken to CNBC after meeting with the Biden administration and tech executives at the White House about the future of AI development and what it will take to produce it. Huang joined other major tech executives at the White House who are also assisting in the development of AI, with reports confirming the presence of OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google President Ruth Porat, Amazon's cloud chief Matt Harman, and Microsoft President Brad Smith. On the other side of the fence were government officials from various agencies, such as Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and Energy Secretary Gennifer Granholm. What was the meeting about? Huang explained that the conference focused on how the US government could assist in the development of data centers across the US, particularly in the form of implementing initiatives that ultimately would lead the US to maintain its lead in the global AI race. Companies require a significant amount of energy to power these massive data centers, which was also a topic of the meeting as the Energy Department will help data center owners find clean and reliable power sources along with new resources in the form of loans, grants, and tax credits. The Financial Post reports that over the next decade, the growing demand for electricity caused by new data centers, along with other factors, will increase overall electricity demand by between 15% and 20%.