https://www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/microsoft-ceo-warns-that-we-must-do-something-useful-with-ai-or-theyll-lose-social-permission-to-burn-electricity-on-it/ [] Skip to main content (*) ( ) Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition flag of US UK EditionUK US EditionUS CA EditionCanada AU EditionAustralia Subscribe Sign in * * View Profile * Sign out [ ] Search Search PC Gamer [ ] * * Games * Hardware * News * Reviews * Guides * Video * Forum * More + PC Gaming Show + Software + Movies & TV + Codes + Coupons + Magazine + Newsletter + Affiliate links + Meet the team + Community guidelines + About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine Subscription PC Gamer Magazine Subscription Why subscribe? * Subscribe to the world's #1 PC gaming mag * Try a single issue or save on a subscription * Issues delivered straight to your door or device From$1 Subscribe now Don't miss these Stellar Blade AI Stellar Blade's director says AI can see 'one person can perform the work of 100 people' but that won't wind up in job losses, somehow The OpenAI logo is being displayed on a smartphone with an AI brain visible in the background, in this photo illustration taken in Brussels, Belgium, on January 2, 2024. (Photo illustration by Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images) AI Here we go: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman once called it a 'last resort', but ChatGPT is about to get stuffed with ads SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 16: Min-Liang Tan, CEO of Razer Inc. speaks during a conference at SXSW Sydney on October 16, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. Hardware Razer CEO admits users could fall in love with its holographic AI assistant project but 'that's definitely not something we plan to build the product toward' Dell COO Jeff Clarke at its CES 2026 pr-briefing Hardware Dell's CES 2026 chat was the most pleasingly un-AI briefing I've had in maybe 5 years Signage outside the Micron offices in San Jose, California, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. Memory Micron says it's not to blame for its high memory prices: 'There's just not enough supply to go around' CHONGQING, CHINA - DECEMBER 29: In this photo illustration, a person holds a smartphone displaying the logo of "Claude," an AI language model by Anthropic, with the company's logo visible in the background, illustrating the rapid development and adoption of generative AI technologies, on December 29, 2024 in Chongqing, China. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a cornerstone of China's strategic ambitions, with the government aiming to establish the country as a global leader in AI by 2030. AI 'I think this is crazy': Anthropic's CEO takes a potshot at Nvidia and the US government for selling AI chips to China A collage of Google thinky face emojis. AI Microsoft's head of AI doesn't understand why people don't like AI, and I don't understand why he doesn't understand because it's pretty obvious Lisa Su, chair and chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), during the 2026 CES event in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. AI Jen-Hsun needs to up his game because we've run the numbers and AMD's CES keynote hit 1.8 mentions of AI per minute--even more than Nvidia Microsoft Windows Event Windows 'Windows is evolving into an agentic OS' says Windows president in what I can only assume is a bid to make me swap to Linux Satya Nadella laughing at the Microsoft 50th Anniversary Copilot event AI Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says it's time to stop talking about AI 'slop' and start talking about a 'theory of the mind that accounts for humans being equipped with these new cognitive amplifier tools' Macro view of the group of computer PC DRAM memory modules circuit board PCB with selective focus effect Memory 'We're facing [what has] never happened before: HDD, DRAM, HBM, NAND... all in severe shortage in 2026' says Silicon Motion's CEO as memory prices continue to soar US President Donald Trump speaks during a photo opportunity with autoracing officials and champions on the South Portico of the White House on April 9, 2025, in Washington, DC. US President Donald Trump abruptly backed down Wednesday in his global trade war with a 90 day tariff pause for most countries -- but slapped even more levies against China in what has become a brutal duel between the world&# 039;s two largest economies. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images) AI Trump announces that AI companies must 'pay their own way' for energy consumption to prevent consumer utility bills from going up Tim Sweeney AI It's not weird to want a generative AI disclosure on games Satya Nadella sits between Donald Trump and Jeff Bezos looking awkward Gaming Industry Microsoft's year of shame PORTLAND, OR - OCTOBER,16: Linus Torvalds, a software engineer and principal creator of the Linux kernel, poses for a portrait at his home in Portland, Ore. on Friday, October 16, 2015 AI 'There is *zero* point in talking about AI slop. That's just plain stupid': Linus Torvalds weighs in on AI debate in Linux kernel documentation Popular * CES 2026 * GOTY Awards * Best PC gear * Arc Raiders * PC Gamer Quizzes! 1. Software 2. AI Microsoft CEO warns that we must 'do something useful' with AI or they'll lose 'social permission' to burn electricity on it News By Tyler Wilde published 21 January 2026 Workers should learn AI skills and companies should use it because it's a "cognitive amplifier," claims Satya Nadella. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works. Share Share by: * Copy link * Facebook * X * Whatsapp * Reddit * Pinterest * Flipboard * Email Share this article 46 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Conversation with Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft | World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026 - YouTube Conversation with Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft | World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026 - YouTube Watch On In a conversation at this year's rich person convention--aka the World Economic Forum--Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella warned that AI will lose public support unless it's used to "do something useful that changes the outcomes of people and communities and countries and industries." "We will quickly lose even the social permission to take something like energy, which is a scarce resource, and use it to generate these tokens, if these tokens are not improving health outcomes, education outcomes, public sector efficiency, private sector competitiveness, across all sectors, small and large, right?" said Nadella. "And that, to me, is ultimately the goal." On the supply side, Nadella says that AI companies and policy makers must build out "a ubiquitous grid of energy and tokens," which is the task currently making it impossible to buy a stick of RAM at a reasonable price. But after that, he says it's on employers and job seekers to, more or less, just start using AI. Related articles * Satya Nadella laughing at the Microsoft 50th Anniversary Copilot event Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says it's time to stop talking about AI 'slop' and start talking about a 'theory of the mind that accounts for humans being equipped with these new cognitive amplifier tools' * A collage of Google thinky face emojis. Microsoft's head of AI doesn't understand why people don't like AI, and I don't understand why he doesn't understand because it's pretty obvious * Satya Nadella laughing at the Microsoft 50th Anniversary Copilot event If Microsoft can't source enough electricity to power all the AI GPUs it has, you have to wonder how Amazon is going to cope in its new $38 billion deal with OpenAI "The demand side of this is a little bit like, every firm has to start by using it," said Nadella, throwing in some industry-standard hyperbole by calling AI a "cognitive amplifier" that gives you "access to infinite minds." The CEO added that the AI industry needs to encourage job seekers to pick up AI skills (undefined), in the same way people master Excel to make themselves more employable. "People need to say, 'Oh, I pick up this AI skill, and now I'm a better provider of some product or service in the real economy," said Nadella. He did at least provide one real example of what he means by all this: "When a doctor can ... spend more time with the patient, because the AI is doing the transcription and entering the records in the EMR system, entering the right billing code so that the healthcare industry is better served across the payer, the provider, and the patient, ultimately--that's an outcome that I think all of us can benefit from." I wonder if I'll really want to spend more time talking to my doctor with an AI eavesdropper listening intently for reasons to reclassify my preventative care visit as a more expensive diagnostic visit (could we just redesign the US healthcare system instead?), but at least for some doctors, AI recording and note-taking tools have already been helpful. One study said that medical professionals reported "tremendous benefits" from using AI scribes, while calling for more research. The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. [ ][ ]Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands[ ]Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors[Sign me up] By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. I also find automatic transcription tools useful, but if I were banking on general purpose LLMs being as revolutionary as personal computers and the internet, I'd find it worrying how many applications boil down to transcribing audio, summarizing text, and fetching code snippets. There are reasons to be skeptical about the idea that we're going to reorganize society around these functions. LLMs are error-prone--a UK police chief just resigned over a Microsoft Copilot error--and a recent report by researchers associated with the MIT Media Lab suggests that despite billions in investment, "95% of organizations are getting zero return" from adopting AI. Addressing the notion that AI is a bubble waiting to burst, Nadella said that it's only a bubble if tech company partnerships and infrastructure spending are all there is to it. He's confident, however, that AI will "bend the productivity curve" and bring "economic growth all around the world, not just economic growth driven by capital expense." Just let me know when I can buy RAM again! Razer Blade 16 gaming laptop Best gaming rigs 2026 All our favorite gear 1. Best gaming laptop: Razer Blade 16 2. Best gaming PC: HP Omen 35L 3. Best handheld gaming PC: Lenovo Legion Go S SteamOS ed. 4. Best mini PC: Minisforum AtomMan G7 PT 5. Best VR headset: Meta Quest 3 Check out our list of guides Tyler Wilde Tyler Wilde Social Links Navigation Editor-in-Chief, US Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the '80s and '90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that's right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League. Show More Comments You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name. Logout Read more Satya Nadella laughing at the Microsoft 50th Anniversary Copilot event Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says it's time to stop talking about AI 'slop' and start talking about a 'theory of the mind that accounts for humans being equipped with these new cognitive amplifier tools' A collage of Google thinky face emojis. Microsoft's head of AI doesn't understand why people don't like AI, and I don't understand why he doesn't understand because it's pretty obvious Satya Nadella laughing at the Microsoft 50th Anniversary Copilot event If Microsoft can't source enough electricity to power all the AI GPUs it has, you have to wonder how Amazon is going to cope in its new $38 billion deal with OpenAI Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang talking to No Priors on YouTube Nvidia CEO Jensun Huang critiques 'well respected people who have painted a doomer narrative' around AI right after saying 'I guess someday we will have God AI' Google CEO Sundar Pichai at the Cloud Next '18 event in San Francisco, California, on Tuesday, July 24, 2018. Everyone knows the AI business model is steal first, ask permission later, and Google's CEO is clinging to the notion of opt-outs as justifying it: 'We do give people those rights' The IBM-made Gamecube Gekko PowerPC processor 'This is a race towards who can get more and more of the world's 7.5 billion people to become subscribers': IBM's CEO says the AI industry isn't a bubble Latest in AI CHONGQING, CHINA - DECEMBER 29: In this photo illustration, a person holds a smartphone displaying the logo of "Claude," an AI language model by Anthropic, with the company's logo visible in the background, illustrating the rapid development and adoption of generative AI technologies, on December 29, 2024 in Chongqing, China. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a cornerstone of China's strategic ambitions, with the government aiming to establish the country as a global leader in AI by 2030. 'I think this is crazy': Anthropic's CEO takes a potshot at Nvidia and the US government for selling AI chips to China OpenAI logo displayed on a phone screen and ChatGPT website displayed on a laptop screen are seen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on December 5, 2022. OpenAI's internal documents predict $14 billion loss in 2026 according to report An anthropomorphic cat from the movie Cats holding a can of sparkly catnip Google's AI overview search results are so dumb, it took author Chuck Wendig just weeks to convince it he has a cat named 'Sir Mewlington Von Pissbreath' that can speak 'limited Cantonese' A promotional image for Nvidia NeMo, using icons to represent the different aspects of the generative AI framework Nvidia allegedly greenlit the use of pirated books from illegal sources to train its AI models, according to an expanded class-action lawsuit Steam logo Steam updates AI disclosure form to specify that it's focused on AI-generated content that is 'consumed by players,' not efficiency tools used behind the scenes The OpenAI logo is being displayed on a smartphone with an AI brain visible in the background, in this photo illustration taken in Brussels, Belgium, on January 2, 2024. 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