The advantage of cheap energy in Iran should be redefined

For many years, cheap energy was the growth engine of Iran’s industries, but today the same advantage has become an obstacle for development. The lack of gas and electricity and the wear and tear of infrastructure show that energy without productivity is no longer a guarantee of competitiveness. Hamidreza Mazandarani, a network and artificial intelligence researcher, said in a conversation with Digiato that it is time to use the advantage of cheap energy in the development and innovation of artificial intelligence.

While in many countries, most of the energy is allocated to the innovation and development of artificial intelligence, 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 advantage of cheap energy has practically lost its effectiveness, energy consumption in the past has hindered investment in innovative sectors. Mazandarani believes that energy should become the fuel of innovation and computing power for the development of artificial intelligence and digital economy, so that the country can distance itself from crude sales and create a sustainable advantage.

At the same time, the lack of gas and electricity in different seasons has stopped or reduced production in many industrial units, which this crisis shows, even the “cheapest energy” cannot guarantee the economy without productivity and smart management. In such a situation, when energy is no longer responsive to the needs of high-consuming industries, how can we use cheap energy? simply as fuel production but as Used innovation fuel?

Investing in artificial intelligence technologies is expensive in terms of energy in the first stage. in this Mazandarani said to Digiato:

“Generative artificial intelligence 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 advantage of cheap energy can become a strategic opportunity in this field. Just as some countries have turned into 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 intelligence, relying on the relative advantage of energy.

According to him, one of the ways is to transform oil from the path of the petrochemical chain into products with higher added value; But another way is the direct conversion of raw energy into “processing”. Simply put, energy can be converted into computing power; This computing power can be used to solve the internal problems of the country or it can be offered as a service/product.

This artificial intelligence 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 countries have taken a smart approach, because of the cold climate, they locate data centers in the same areas to take advantage of the natural advantage to reduce cooling costs, because data centers generate a lot of heat. An example closer to us is Saudi Arabia, which, along with the development of tourism, is gradually turning a part of its oil economy into an economy based on artificial intelligence and related infrastructure.

He believes that smart investment in cheap energy can turn it into 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 development of artificial intelligence requires targeted investment. Globally, artificial intelligence has become one of the most energy-consuming sectors. Studies have shown that the bulk of the energy consumption of large artificial intelligence 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 guarantee a sustainable competitive advantage without high productivity, smart management and modern infrastructure. In other words, relying solely on cheap energy sources is no longer an advantage.

Correspondent: Zahra Kerami