The morning of this Friday (November 14th), last day of the XVIII International Congress on Human Rights, was marked by a debate that connected two of the most urgent topics today: Artificial Intelligence and Energy Security. The sixth thematic panel of the event brought together the legal vice president of Axia Energy, Marcelo de Siqueira Freitas, and the legal manager of the company, Andrei Braga Mendes. The mediation was conducted by Professor Naima Worm.
Representing one of the largest companies in the sector in the Southern Hemisphere, the panelists from Axia Energy (former Eletrobrás) were nominated by the CEO of the Legal Memory Center - Memory -, Lourdes Gonçalves, who accompanied the Table and stressed that "the presence of Axia panelists brings a valuable contribution to the debate on Artificial Intelligence and Energy Security. An urgent issue, especially in view of the technological impacts on the energy sector and institutional relations".
Opening the panel, Andrei Braga contextualized the challenges of electrical infrastructure in the face of digital transformation. With the provocation on "who will build the best AI?" soon resignified for "who will be able to keep it on?", the expert presented the traditional structure of the Brazilian electricity sector and the new flows generated by electric mobility, distributed generation and the use of real-time data. According to him, the strategic use of AI in the energy sector can generate more reliability, reduce risks and increase system resilience.
“We have an evolutionary process that helps in inclusion, risk prevention [...] with the use of Artificial Intelligence it provides better reliability, a resilience of the system [...] a series of benefits for the sector and society as a whole", he said.
Andrei also highlighted the energy challenges brought by the era of data centers. "Axia estimates that electricity consumption per data center will double by 2030, reaching close to 945 terawatt-hours," he explained. The forecast highlights the role of energy as a central axis of technological transformation and it repositions Brazil, a country with mostly renewable matrix, as a global strategic actor.
Subsequently, Marcelo de Siqueira Freitas reinforced the idea that Brazilian infrastructure has the potential to lead advances in AI, not only as a user but also as a provider of sustainable solutions.
“We have abundant and renewable energy [...], so we have the ability to be relevant actors in the use of technology. [...] Axia Energy is preparing to help the country try to bring major players of processors and Artificial Intelligence to Brazil to consume the energy that Brazil has", developed.
The panelist also presented the repositioning of the company after the privatization of Eletrobras, explaining the origin and values that underlie Axia.
“Axia comes from the Greek and it means value. The company maintains its historical commitment to national development and operates with a focus on innovation, sustainability and investment", commented.
Throughout the presentation, Marcelo demonstrated the use of cutting-edge technologies, such as the GraphCast weather model, developed by Google and pioneered by Axia to predict weather events with greater precision. Projects with NVIDIA for extreme wind detection and satellite solutions to combat fires were also mentioned, as well as the Eletro.IA platform, aimed at using Artificial Intelligence at scale in the national electricity sector.
In speaking, Professor Naima Worm took the opportunity to highlight the importance of the agenda on this last day of the Congress: "bringing to the end of the Congress this theme was so, I think, the icing on the cake; we talked a lot about the utilization of AI, as we will use it in the Judiciary, political actors, then, all the team of Esmat pondered very well this moment", she added.
