TED Talks Daily The story you're not hearing about AI data centers | Ayșe Coskun
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Feb 25, 2026 
Ayșe Coskun, a computer scientist who designs energy-efficient computing and grid-friendly data centers, explains how AI facilities could become virtual batteries. She discusses powering down or shifting workloads, prototypes that follow grid targets, and using AI to orchestrate flexible computing. The conversation focuses on transforming energy-hungry centers into grid-stabilizing assets.
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Data Centers Can Be Virtual Grid Muscles
- AI data centers can act as flexible grid resources rather than just energy hogs.
- Ayșe Coskun explains many AI jobs are predictable, controllable, and delayable, making data centers ideal to balance supply and demand.
From Scribbles To Running Prototypes
- Ayșe Coskun recounts her decade-long research journey from a dismissed idea to real deployments.
- She describes initial skepticism, paper and funding rejections, then prototypes that ran on real data center servers.
The Real Grid Problem Is Timing
- The grid challenge is timing, not just more generation.
- Coskun contrasts midday solar abundance and evening demand, and notes batteries and new plants are slow or costly, creating an opening for flexible loads.