Hi Michael -

The power issue will go away once we move to neuromorphic chips. Today's AI systems are only power hungry because they are actually computer-based simulations of neural networks. Real neural networks (as neuromorphic systems) use very little power, just as the brain uses little power.

But your point is still valid if one thinks in terms of resources that an AI might need to achieve whatever goals it sets...

There is a thought-provoking book that gets into this a little. It is called "The Artilect War", by Hugo DeGaris. It's 10+ years back, but he was (is?) an AI researcher when we wrote it, and was thinking about resource and scale issues.