SocietyAI glossary
Compute
The raw computing power (GPUs, data centres, electricity) required for AI. This is the strategic resource that companies and states are fighting over.
In other words
The oil of the AI era, pipelines and refineries included.
Alyriaz articles that mention it
- Deutsche Telekom aims to save 2.5 billion with AI
Deutsche Telekom aims to save 2.5 billion euros through AI by 2030. Hotline, network, call translation, and two figures missing.
- Anthropic: half of sales go through its rivals
According to Reuters, 47% of Anthropic's sales in 2025 went through Amazon and Google, which are at once its investors, its suppliers and its competitors.
- AI that improves itself: its builders sound the alarm
At Anthropic, AI already writes over 80% of the code. Pioneers and researchers from the big labs warn: the loop could run away with itself.
- In China, the stock market now sees only AI
In China, AI-related stocks have doubled while consumer stocks hit a ten-year low. What that says about money and AI.
- What is an exaflop? Measuring computing power, and why comparisons mislead
Computing power announcements are multiplying in exaflops. We explain this unit, why the same hardware can show very different figures, and how to read these announcements.
- The real raw material of AI isn't data. It's electricity and silicon.
Anthropic has just signed a $19 billion data centre lease, Meta is training a model on nearly a million chips. Behind the apparent immateriality of AI lies a very concrete industrial battle for compute, energy and silicon. We break down this race, its stakes, and why it is redrawing the map of technological power.