Artificial intelligence is reaching a physical limit: moving data consumes more energy than computing it. The Age of Light explores how photonics and neuromorphic architectures enable human-centered, energy-efficient intelligence, embedding AI directly in hardware at the edge of reality.
Mind & Leadership
Leadership, decision-making and human judgment in complex, high-speed environments.
As artificial intelligence continues its exponential growth, the world is approaching a critical threshold: the electricity required to move data between chips is fast approaching and in some cases surpassing, the power consumed by the computations themselves.
The global race for artificial intelligence is often framed as a competition of scale: larger models, more parameters, faster GPUs. Yet beneath this visible layer lies a quieter crisis. As AI systems grow, the energy required to move data between chips, racks and clusters is beginning to exceed the energy needed for computation itself.
For the average consumer, 5G is little more than an icon in the corner of an iPhone screen — a symbol of speed, modernity and progress. For Apple, it represents something far more consequential: the most important negotiation table of this decade.
Artificial intelligence is often discussed in silos: geopolitics at the macro level, infrastructure at the meso level and user experience at the micro level. But in reality, these layers are deeply interconnected. Decisions made at one level ripple across the system, producing consequences that are felt far from their point of origin. Understanding AI requires thinking in chains of cause and effect, not isolated segments.
China rarely dominates Western headlines in the same way as Silicon Valley or Brussels, yet few countries shape the global future of artificial intelligence as quietly and consistently. While public debate in Europe and the United States often focuses on regulation, ethics and market competition, China has taken a different path. It treats AI not as a standalone sector, but as a strategic foundation for national power.
