When artificial intelligence starts managing the essentials of life (energy, water, and food), efficiency becomes more than a technical problem. It becomes an ethical one.
From stabilising Australia’s power grid to allocating water in drought and forecasting global crop yields, AI is quietly shaping the systems that sustain us. But every optimisation has a cost.
In this episode of Decoded: AI for Everyone, we explore how intelligence is being built into the planet’s vital networks, and what happens when algorithms decide what stays on, what gets switched off… and why.
Episode themes:
Energy: AI-driven grids balancing demand, storage, and fairness.
Water: Digital scarcity and why the future of water isn’t just technical... It’s ethical.
Food: Feeding 10 billion people through automation and its inequalities.
Trade-offs: Optimisation vs. equity in systems that decide who wins and who waits.
Because every smart system is a social system first.
Airs Saturday | November 8 | 2025 at 12 pm AEST
RESOURCES
Mentioned Frameworks & Projects:
• Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO)
• Tesla Autobidder
• Google DeepMind for Energy
• Murray–Darling Basin Authority AI Programs
• UNESCO AI for Water Security
• John Deere Precision Ag Tech
• IBM Watson Decision Platform for Agriculture
• AgriDigital
• National AI Assurance Framework (Australia)
• OECD AI Principles
Referenced Research:
Leslie, J. (2025). Resource Optimisation AI: Governance and Trade-offs in Energy, Water & Food Systems. Strategen AI Research Publications.