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(Bloomberg) — Canada\u2019s abundant hydroelectricity offers the best way to power booming artificial intelligence servers and win the global AI race \u2014 if the country is able to cooperate with the US amid a trade war with President Donald Trump, according to former Google chief Eric Schmidt. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a real limit in energy,\u201d Schmidt told the TED conference in Vancouver on Friday, citing an estimate that the US industry will need 90 additional gigawatts to not throttle data centers. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cMy answer, by the way, is: Think Canada. Nice people, full of hydroelectric power. But that\u2019s apparently not the political mood right now \u2014 sorry,\u201d he said, in a reference to Trump\u2019s tariffs and claims that Canada has \u201cnothing\u201d the US needs.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
He said a typical nuclear power plant produces about 1 gigawatt, and the construction of 90 plants in America isn\u2019t happening. \u201cHow are we going to get all that power? This is a major major national issue.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Politicians in Canada are aware of the tech giants\u2019 demand for power and some have talked about serving it. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWe have about 250 data centers in Canada \u2014 we could do a hell of a lot more, and our secret sauce is our energy, our incredible supply of energy of all kinds: hydro, nuclear, natural gas, you name it,\u201d Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said in a January interview. \u201cSo let\u2019s unleash the production of these resources and bring all that money home.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Schmidt, Google\u2019s former chief executive officer and chairman, went on to describe the fears of how a race for AI dominance between superpowers could spark preemptive action and conflict. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Schmidt was co-author of a paper published last month introducing the concept of \u201cMutual Assured AI Malfunction\u201d in which \u201cany state\u2019s aggressive bid for unilateral AI dominance is met with preventive sabotage by rivals.\u201d In the TED appearance, he described a viable outcome as bombing the opponent\u2019s data centers. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cDo you think I\u2019m insane? These conversations are occurring around nuclear opponents today in our world,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cYou can imagine a series of steps along the lines of what I\u2019m talking about that could lead us to an horrific global outcome \u2014 that\u2019s why we have to be paying attention.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
He referred to non-state or \u201ctrack 2\u201d dialog on the subject with China arranged by the late diplomat Henry Kissinger, one of his co-authors. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n