For many years, cheap energy was the growth engine of Iran’s industries, but today the same advaage has become an obstacle for developme. The lack of gas and electricity and the wear and tear of infrastructure show that energy without productivity is no longer a guaraee of competitiveness. Hamidreza Mazandarani, a network and artificial ielligence researcher, said in a conversation with Digiato that it is time to use the advaage of cheap energy in the developme and innovation of artificial ielligence.
While in many couries, most of the energy is allocated to the innovation and developme of artificial ielligence, Iran is now facing energy consumption twice the world average; That is, to produce each unit of product, it consumes twice the global average of energy. In addition to the fact that today the advaage of cheap energy has practically lost its effectiveness, energy consumption in the past has hindered investme in innovative sectors. Mazandarani believes that energy should become the fuel of innovation and computing power for the developme of artificial ielligence and digital economy, so that the coury can distance itself from crude sales and create a sustainable advaage.
At the same time, the lack of gas and electricity in differe seasons has stopped or reduced production in many industrial units, which this crisis shows, even the “cheapest energy” cannot guaraee the economy without productivity and smart manageme. In such a situation, when energy is no longer responsive to the needs of high-consuming industries, how can we use cheap energy? simplyas fuel production but as Used innovation fuel?
Investing in artificial ielligence technologies is expensive in terms of energy in the first stage. in this Mazandarani said to Digiato:
“Generative artificial ielligence models, both in the training phase and when generating the output, require heavy calculations and, as a result, high energy consumption. Meanwhile, in Iran, the advaage of cheap energy can become a strategic opportunity in this field. Just as some couries have turned io data and computing infrastructure poles by using their climatic conditions or natural resources, Iran can transfer a part of its economic capacity from selling raw materials to providing computing power and services related to artificial ielligence, relying on the relative advaage of energy.
According to him, one of the ways is to transform oil from the path of the petrochemical chain io products with higher added value; But another way is the direct conversion of raw energy io “processing”. Simply put, energy can be converted io computing power; This computing power can be used to solve the iernal problems of the coury or it can be offered as a service/product.
This artificial ielligence researcher emphasizes that instead of selling raw materials, a market can be created around the provision of data and model processing and infrastructure and create prosperity:
“In this area, some Scandinavian couries have taken a smart approach, because of the cold climate, they locate data ceers in the same areas to take advaage of the natural advaage to reduce cooling costs, because data ceers generate a lot of heat. An example closer to us is Saudi Arabia, which, along with the developme of tourism, is gradually turning a part of its oil economy io an economy based on artificial ielligence and related infrastructure.
He believes that smart investme in cheap energy can turn it io a “product with high added value” instead of a simple fuel, and bring Iran closer to an economy based on technology and data.
Moving towards the developme of artificial ielligence requires targeted investme. Globally, artificial ielligence has become one of the most energy-consuming sectors. Studies have shown that the bulk of the energy consumption of large artificial ielligence models occurs not only in the training phase, but also in the “inference” time; That is, when the model is ready and responds to the output.
Finally, Today, even “cheap energy” cannot guaraee a sustainable competitive advaage without high productivity, smart manageme and modern infrastructure. In other words, relying solely on cheap energy sources is no longer an advaage.
Corresponde: Zahra Kerami
