Forget model tweaks—the real AI race is about power. We sit down with Kris Krug to map how GPUs translate into gigawatts, why data centers are the new factories, and what it would take for British Columbia and Canada to turn clean energy into sovereign intelligence instead of exporting value and importing electrons. From Vancouver’s buzzing AI meetups to Meta’s multi‑gigawatt builds, we connect the dots between policy, infrastructure, and the businesses already adopting AI far beyond chatbots.
Kris walks us through his path from creative tech to generative AI, the moment Midjourney reignited his practice, and the community that formed around practical workflows. We dig into the hard math of energy—firm power versus storage fantasies, LNG tradeoffs versus hydro flexibility—and the strategic fork in the road: build compute where clean energy is abundant or watch others do it faster with our resources. Along the way, we unpack how jobs are changing toward orchestration and token efficiency, why hallucinations fade with purpose‑built tools, and how young workers use AI as an operating layer, not a search engine.
We also spotlight a different kind of leadership: Indigenous‑led data centers in cooler, energy‑rich regions, sovereign data governance, and the Indigenomics Institute’s AI platform measuring economic value GDP misses. Alberta’s coordinated push (and Amii’s impact) shows what alignment can unlock; BC’s opportunity is to organize around clean, green, ethical AI that keeps models, insights, and benefits closer to home. If energy is the new cornerstone of intelligence, then policy is product design—and the decisions we make now will decide who owns the tokens of tomorrow.
If this conversation got you thinking, follow and share the show, leave a review with your biggest takeaway, and tell us: should clean power make AI a Canadian strategic priority?

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