What's Next For Fusion Power And AI? 3 Business Leaders Explain At Davos

The five-day meeting at Davos beginning Monday will explore how to re-launch growth, harness new technologies and strengthen social and economic resilience, according to the World Economic Forum. The global meeting will see participation by nearly 3,000 leaders from over 130 countries, including 350 governmental leaders.

NDTV spoke to Commonwealth Fusion Systems CEO Bob Mumgaard, Abhishek Awadhiya of SimpliAI, and Avanti Fellows founder Akshay Saxena - people who have a real say about where it's all going.

It's been a year of real crisis around the world, whether it's conflict, concerns over sustainable development, and concerns over so many issues, not least of all the future of artificial intelligence (AI) and climate.

Nuclear Fusion Energy

Mr Mumgaard began by giving an overview of the future of nuclear plants in terms of fusion energy and safe operations.

"It's completely different from existing nuclear power. It's the opposite. In fusion, you're combining light elements to make heavier ones the same way the Sun works. That means that there's no meltdown, there's no connection to weapons, and there's no long-lived nuclear waste," said Mr Mumgaard, who is dealing with one of the most interesting aspects of clean energy.

"The issue right now is we still have to develop the technology and deploy it. We're building on the very first power plants right now. Right now, we're about halfway through building the first prototype outside of Boston," he told NDTV.

Mr Mumgaard said his company spun out of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

"We started about three years ago building this machine. In about two years, we'll turn the machine on, and that'll be an important point in the world where we'll have, for the first time, industrial-scale fusion power being created by people," the Commonwealth Fusion Systems CEO said.

On matters of cost, which will be a key factor in producing clean energy, Mr Mumgaard said the goal with all new sustainable energy is to produce energy in a way that the world can enable growth, which means it has to be low cost.

"And one of the great things about technologies like fusion is you're using all these other technologies that have come before, you're adding them up. And so you're getting the cost advantages that came from new ways to manufacture, you're getting cost advantages that come from simulation and the use of AI and fusion itself. And so we think that this could lead to a low-cost energy source. We need to still build this and have the receipts. And that's what we're working on now," he added.

AI And Workplace Disruptions

Abhishek Awadhiya of SimpliAI said he strongly believes that AI will work in conjunction with humanity and workforce to elevate productivity.

"A lot of our work is - while focused on automation at SimpliAI - we firmly believe that in the near term, all of these AI tools are going to elevate the productivity of workforces across functions and across roles. It's very important for all the players to really make that argument very clear, very succinct to the people at large, so that the fear factor around AI is actually replaced with positivity and hope," Mr Awadhiya said.

On jobs disappearing due to AI in the workplace, he said, "Well, as the report of World Economic Forum itself states that while there'll be about 90 odd million jobs which will be substituted by 2030, but 170 million more would be created. So in my mind, it's like what happened in the Industrial Revolution. Jobs will get substituted, the jobs which are repetitive, low value in nature, with high-value jobs being moved up the value chain to people. And to me, that is what is going to unlock productivity for humanity at large."

Future Of Education And AI

Avanti Fellows founder Akshay Saxena cautioned against going too fast with AI in the area of education.

"I think there's a couple of things to be really careful about, especially when you look at it in the context of a country like India, where we already have massive inequity that's growing. One is, like Abhishek said, that the nature of work will change, which means you'll have to almost work with an AI copilot alongside," Mr Saxena said.

"What are our schools doing to equip kids to do that? And how many kids even have exposure to this? Because the majority of kids in India don't even have cell phones of their own, or access to the internet in any meaningful way. And what does that mean for our colleges? Because India has amongst the largest engineering workforce that we produce, but also amongst the least employable engineering workforce," he said. "So how do we quickly remodel our engineering schools, technical schools to actually make graduates AI ready? And if you don't move quickly on these fronts, this could be quite catastrophic for India's youth."

At Davos, India's participation aims to strengthen partnerships, attract investment, and position the country as a global leader in sustainable development and technological innovation. India is sending five Union ministers, three chief ministers, and ministers from several other states to the WEF this time.