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Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly argues scaling AI demands infinite energy, while Chris Anderson says physical bottlenecks will cap supply

Infrastructure and energy availability act as rate-limiting factors.

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Original post
OPChris Anderson#1839Chris Anderson@CHR1SA

@kevin2kelly Not sure I'm following you. Clearly in any system there are "drivers" that establish rate. In this case, demand for intelligence is ~infinite (more accurately, unbounded), while the availability of energy (and silicon etc) gate supply.

2:58 PM · May 25, 2026 View on X
REPLYChris Anderson#1839Chris Anderson@CHR1SA

@kevin2kelly Yes, but maybe I can put it another way:

Energy without AI = finite demand (that's where we've been so far)

AI without energy = finite supply

AI with energy = unbounded growth

Kevin KellyKevin Kelly@kevin2kelly

I think what you are saying is that the demand for intelligence will exceed what human users demand, and that the whole system (AI itself plus everything else) has unbounded demand. If true, I would say the whole system also has unbounded demand for energy as well, not just that the supply is gating.

12:56 AM · May 26, 2026 · 103 Views
1:00 AM · May 26, 2026 · 184 Views