Is Energy More Important Than Algorithms? Maxim Oreshkin and Shaoshan Liu on the New Economy in the Age of AI

We tend to think of artificial intelligence as something that exists inside a screen. But the next race in AI may unfold in the physical world.

Robots, autonomous transport and industrial systems — AI is becoming part of the real economy. And here, one powerful model is no longer enough: energy, computing capacity and the infrastructure to deploy autonomous systems on a mass scale are also essential.

Economist Maxim Oreshkin and Liu Shaoshan, Director of the Embodied AI Centre at the Shenzhen Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics for Society (AIRS), discuss these issues in this episode of the Open Dialogue.

Liu describes the new AI economy with a simple formula: energy → computing → intelligence → productivity. His key argument is that technological competition is shifting from the question "Who has the most powerful model?" to "Who can deliver useful intelligence reliably, affordably and on a large scale?"

What will be the most important resource in the age of AI: algorithms, chips or energy? And what will technological sovereignty mean if AI truly becomes a new economic infrastructure?

The podcast was recorded in the city of Vladivostok during the expert session "The Asia-Pacific Region — A Testing Ground for Technological Experimentation", held as part of the international Open Dialogue project "The Future of the World. A New Platform for Global Growth".

The event took place at the branch of the National Centre RUSSIA with the support of the Centre for Cross-Industry Expertise "The Third Rome".