An AI data centre – imagine a factory of buzzing wires and computing equipment cooled by industrial fans – can consume as much power as a city. It has been estimated that, not too long from now, we’ll require 92 cities’ worth of extra power just to meet the demands of artificial intelligence. Ergo, the heat is on – but so, it is said, is a new cold war.

On Radio 4 last week, Misha Glenny was exploring how the rapid evolution of technology is shaping the rivalry between the US and China. It turns out that the race for pre-eminence – in AI, at least – is as close as the 1973 Grand National. Red Rum (China) has the current lead, but that lead is ‘razor-thin’ and is thought to owe something to the nature of American tactics.

An astonishing 90 per cent of 14-year-olds in China are short-sighted

An astonishing 90 per cent of 14-year-olds in China are short-sighted

California-based AI giant NVIDIA is, at more than $4 trillion, the most valuable company in the world. But the Americans’ decision to block the export of their high-end chips to China is said to have propelled the creation of Chinese rival DeepSeek. The latter, made at a fraction of the price, can........

© The Spectator