AI and Energy: Inseparable

Artificial intelligence may appear effortless through a chat window, but every prompt relies on an industrial system measured in megawatts. This issue shows how natural gas, power generation, data centres, semiconductors, and cooling systems combine to produce the digital output we call AI tokens. The economics are remarkable: a gigajoule of natural gas worth about C$2.00 at the wellhead can ultimately generate more than C$2,100 in AI token output — a roughly 1,000-fold value increase. For energy-rich jurisdictions such as Canada, AI represents a major industrial opportunity.