By TOI Tech Desk
Publication Date: 2026-01-22 07:06:00
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently warned that artificial intelligence (AI) may lose “social permission” if it fails to deliver tangible results in areas like health care, education and productivity. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Nadella discussed AI’s massive energy footprint, stating that the use will be tolerated only if AI passes tests to improve people’s lives. If the AI models failed this test, they risk losing public trust.“We will quickly lose even the social permission to actually take something like energy, which is a scarce resource, and use it to generate these tokens,” Satya Nadella said, adding “If these tokens are not improving health outcomes, education outcomes, public sector efficiency, private sector competitiveness across all sectors, small and large.”
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During the…

