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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Larry Elliott

AI is destroying jobs – and the energy crisis could make that much worse

Liquid-cooled servers at the Global Switch Docklands data centre campus, London, 16 June 2025.
Liquid-cooled servers at the Global Switch Docklands data centre campus, London, 16 June 2025. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

The transition to a world of artificial intelligence has given a whole new meaning to the concept that capitalism can only renew itself through creative destruction. This is the idea that clapped-out technologies have to be replaced by new ways of doing things, even though the process can be brutal.

That has been the way of things for every new wave of inventions since the dawn of the industrial age in the mid-18th century, but with machines now displaying cognitive skills, able to both think and learn, the potential for economic disruption is all the greater.

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