Coal-Powered AI Robots Are a Dirty Fantasy
Trump has a vision of 21st century robots running on a power technology that hasn’t been cutting-edge since the days of Thomas Edison.
The time for coal?
Photographer: Angel Garcia/Bloomberg
The same day President Donald Trump launched his AI Action Plan, his Energy Secretary Chris Wright pulled federal support for a power project with ties to renewable energy that could help that plan. Not coincidentally, Trump instructed Wright at his AI summit that he must say “clean, beautiful” before any mention of the word “coal” and that the US must compete with China’s construction of new coal-fired plants.
Possibly the only thing more bizarre than Trump’s enforced catch-phrasing is his vision of 21st century robots running on a power technology that hasn’t been cutting-edge since the days of Thomas Edison. Coal has long been a political prop for Trump, but this has taken on greater significance in his second term, with a naked assault on both the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and zero-carbon technologies (nuclear power excepted). When coal isn’t being touted as beautiful or clean, it is pitched as reliable and cheap, and due for a comeback if freed from overbearing rules.