The Energy Cost of AI with Joseph Majkut

In this episode, we're joined by Joseph Majkut, Director of CSIS' Energy Security and Climate Change Program, to take an in-depth look at energy's role in AI. We explore the current state of the U.S. electrical grid (11:34), bottlenecks in the AI data center buildout (43:45), how U.S. energy efforts compare internationally (1:16:06), and more.

Joseph has co-authored three reports on AI and energy: AI for the Grid: Opportunities, Risks, and Safeguards (September 2025), The Electricity Supply Bottleneck on U.S. AI Dominance (March 2025), and The AI Power Surge: Growth Scenarios for GenAI Datacenters Through 2030 (March 2025).