I should probably start with a small confession.
Whenever I’m eating something, or simply want to switch off for a while, I often put on a Turkish podcast in the background.
The reason is quite simple. Although my English gets better every day, I still prefer listening in Turkish when the topic gets highly technical. Instead of constantly translating in my head, I want to fully understand the ideas without missing any important details.
A few days ago, while having a meal, I was listening to an episode of the Barış & Barış Podcast. When the episode finished, one question stayed with me.
Is Artificial Intelligence really just another technology, like the internet?
Or is it gradually becoming something more fundamental, something closer to electricity, or even a form of critical national infrastructure that governments can no longer leave entirely to the private sector?
I didn’t know the answer. So I did what I usually do. I started reading.
Not because I’m an AI researcher. Not because I’m an engineer. Simply because I was curious.
A bigger question than I expected
The more I read, the more I realised something interesting. This isn’t just a question asked by podcast hosts, or by people working in AI. It’s becoming an increasingly serious discussion among researchers, economists, governments and policymakers around the world.
Some researchers argue that Artificial Intelligence should no longer be seen as just another software innovation. Instead, they believe it is evolving into strategic infrastructure, something societies may one day depend on in much the same way they depend on electricity, telecommunications or transport networks. A few have gone as far as proposing international oversight bodies for AI modelled on the agency that governs nuclear energy.
Of course, not everyone agrees. Some academics believe comparing AI to electricity or nuclear energy goes too far. They argue that AI is a general-purpose technology with an extraordinarily broad range of applications, and that these comparisons risk oversimplifying a much more complex reality.
Personally, I appreciate that disagreement. It reminds us of something important: Artificial Intelligence is still evolving, and many of its biggest questions remain unanswered.
Then I started thinking about the country I now call home
Ireland.
And that’s where this discussion became even more interesting to me.
When we think about AI, most of us imagine models, chatbots or new applications. But behind every AI model is another world that most people never see. Electricity. Data centres. GPUs. Cooling systems. High-speed networks. Energy infrastructure.
Once you start thinking about these things, AI no longer feels like just another digital technology.
Ireland is already living this transformation. Today, data centres account for roughly a fifth of the country’s electricity consumption, and that share is expected to keep growing over the coming years. It’s a big enough number that, for a few years, Ireland’s grid operator effectively paused new data centre connections in the Dublin area, before easing that policy at the end of 2025, on condition that new facilities bring their own renewable power and give something back to the grid when it’s under strain.
At the same time, Ireland is investing in initiatives such as the Rinn AI Research Centre, preparing for the implementation of the EU AI Act, developing its own national AI policies, and positioning itself as an increasingly important player in Europe’s AI ecosystem.
Taken together, these developments paint an interesting picture. Governments are no longer thinking only about AI models. They’re also thinking hard about the infrastructure that makes those models possible.
Does this mean the state takes over?
Not really. It doesn’t mean governments will replace the private sector. Innovation will keep coming from startups, researchers and technology companies, in Ireland as everywhere else.
But history tells us something. When a technology becomes strategically important for economic competitiveness, national security and critical infrastructure, governments rarely stay passive observers. They didn’t with electricity. They didn’t with telecommunications. They didn’t with semiconductors.
Could Artificial Intelligence be next?
Why I keep asking these questions
One of the reasons I created AI Dubliners was to better understand not only what AI can do, or what AI companies are building, but how this technology is transforming the world around us, and how Ireland, the country I now proudly call home, is evolving as part of that transformation.
What role is Ireland playing in this new era of AI? And as someone living here, how can I better understand these changes, and share them with others?
Ireland may be a relatively small country. But perhaps that’s exactly why it lets us see global changes more clearly. Maybe that’s why I find it such a fascinating place to watch the future of Artificial Intelligence unfold.
Not because all the answers are here. But because many of the most important questions already are.
What do you think? Is Artificial Intelligence still just another software technology? Or are we beginning to see it as critical infrastructure?
Further reading
- Jeffrey Ding & Allan Dafoe, “Engines of Power: Electricity, AI, and General-Purpose Military Transformations”, European Journal of International Security, 2023
- World Economic Forum, “It’s time to start treating AI infrastructure as critical infrastructure”
- CSIS, on AI, energy and critical infrastructure
- Bipartisan Policy Center, on the U.S. AI Action Plan
- Sophia Hatz, “The Nuclear Analogy in AI Governance Research”
