It is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid discussions about artificial intelligence (AI). There is a growing consensus that AI broadly defined will have a major impact on virtually every sector of the economy. A growing number of experts believe that the impact will not stop there. Like railroads, electricity, telephones, steam engines, and the Internet, AI’s impact is expected to be large enough to affect the way we live. But, as Free State Foundation scholars have written, this will require massive investment to modernize the nation's information networks and to keep them robust.
Most of the attention on AI is focused on building models that will consume massive amounts of data and compute complex problems that are increasingly beyond the ability of humans to solve. A lesser concern has been the energy and, to a smaller extent, water networks required because of their role as major inputs into data centers and power plants. However, AI will also have a large impact on other networks. One of the most important will be the nation's information networks.
In the past, most of the focus on networks has been on extending broadband to all people, a job that is nearing completion as broadband availability becomes ubiquitous. Over the past year or so an increasing number of leaders and organizations have begun to point out the strong interdependency of AI and the information networks. The result is a growing realization that the U.S. needs to devote an enormous amount of investment to networks that are larger, faster, and more self-aware than the existing infrastructure.
As stated above, there is already wide recognition of the strong linkage between AI and power supplies. For instance, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, has stated that the problem in the AI industry is not an excess supply of computation power, but rather a lack of power to accommodate all those CPUs. Jensen Huang, NVIDIA's CEO, has stressed that the U.S. is vulnerable because of its deficient energy supply. Finally, a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies finds that the U.S. electricity sector is struggling to meet growing demand while maintaining low costs, improving system reliance, and reducing emissions.
Recently authoritative voices have expressed some of the same "supply-based" concerns about the information networks. These networks must convey, compute, and control massive amounts of data to massive amounts of computing power and back. Börje Ekholm, President and CEO of Ericsson, explained that “[a]s artificial intelligence (AI) moves beyond data centres into real-world applications like robotics, autonomous systems and extended reality, it depends on high-performance 5G today and 6G tomorrow.” John Saw, T-Mobile's President of Technology and Chief Technology Officer, believes that “6G to us is more than just an ‘XG.’ We think it's the foundation for an AI-native future that distributes intelligence across devices, the edge, and the cloud.” Finally, Ajit Pai, President and CEO of CTIA stated that: “AI without a strong wireless network is like a new car without a road.”
Others share these concerns. An informative report from the Fiber Broadband Association argues that “[t]wo historic trends are unfolding at the same time: the nationwide deployment of fiber broadband infrastructure and the rapid buildout of the infrastructure required to support artificial intelligence, quantum networking, and other emerging applications.” FBA's report says: “AI workloads require high-capacity east-west traffic within and between data centers. They require low-latency pathways between inference platforms and end users. They require resilient interconnection among geographically distributed facilities.” The report argues that the current grid is evolving from a centralized system into a highly distributed network incorporating renewable energy resources, battery storage systems, distributed generation, microgrids, and intelligent controls. Managing this complexity requires real-time visibility and coordination.
A recent CTIA report argues that AI requires networks to move data, coordinate real-time decisions, and interact with the physical world. In turn, wireless networks rely on AI to manage the surging complexity and record traffic driven by AI’s own insatiable data demands:”
[I]t is now clear that AI traffic will strain existing wireless networks before the decade is out with huge new data needs, entirely new traffic patterns, and novel demands on wireless networks to do more than simply carry traffic….
[I]t will also require emerging 6G networks to be AI-native from the ground up with embedded intelligence to dynamically allocate spectrum, anticipate congestion, sense the physical environment, coordinate edge-compute workloads, and secure devices—all at machine speed.
Two final points. To maximize AI’s performance, the most important parts of the networks have to work differently than current networks. They will feature more east-west flows, lower latency, higher uploading speeds, and the ability to operate independently of humans. Second, the networks will have to be closely integrated into those of other industries, including healthcare, transportation, government services, and (of course) electricity.
In fact, building out modernized networks will require both fiber and wireless technology, as well as a lot of other inputs. Success will require massive investments in these modernized networks, most of which will come from the private sector. Given the large economic and security implications, public policy should concentrate on creating favorable conditions for private sector investment and working with allies to develop common standards and protections.
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