From the first cars to generative AI, new technologies are creating demand for specialized materials

Generative artificial intelligence has become widely accepted like a tool that increases productivity. However, the technology is far from mature. Major language models are advancing rapidly from one generation to anotherand experts can only speculate on how AI will affect the workforce and people’s daily lives.

Inasmuch as materials scientistI am interested in how materials and the technologies that result from them affect society. AI is an example of a technology driving global change – particularly through its demand for rare materials and minerals.

But before AI reaches its current level, two other technologies exemplify the process created by the demand for specialized materials: cars and smartphones.

Often, mass adoption of a new invention changes human behavior, leading to new technologies and infrastructure dependent on the invention. In turn, these new technologies and infrastructures require new or improved materials – and these often contain critical minerals: these minerals that are both essential to technology and which strain the supply chain.

THE unequal distribution of these minerals gives leverage to the nations that produce them. The resulting shifts in power strain geopolitical relations and lead to the search for new mineral sources. New technologies fuel the mining industry.

The automobile and the development of suburbs

At the beginning of the 20th century, only 5 out of 1,000 people owned a car, with an annual production of around a few thousand. Workers traveled on foot or by tram. Within a two mile radiusmany people had everything they needed: from groceries to hardware stores, from schools to churches, and from shoemakers to doctors.

Then in 1913, Henry Ford transformed the industry by inventing the assembly line. Now a middle-class family could afford a car: mass production reduced the price of the Model T from US$850 in 1908 to $360 in 1916. While the Great Depression dampened widespread adoption of the car, sales began to increase again after the end of World War II.

With cars, mobility increased and many people moved away from their jobs. In the 1940s and 1950s, a powerful highway lobby that included oil, automobile and construction interests promoted federal highway and transportation policies that increased dependence on the automobile. These policies helped change the landscape: houses were spaced further apart and located further from urban centers where many people worked. In the 1960stwo-thirds of American workers commuted by car, and the average distance had increased to 10 miles.

Public policy and investments have favored the suburbs, which means fewer investment in city centers. The resulting decline made living in the inner cities of many cities undesirable and triggered urban renovation projects.

Long commutes added to pollution and expense, creating demand for lighter, more fuel-efficient cars. But to build them, better materials were needed.

In 1970, a car’s entire chassis and body was made from a single type of steel, but in 2017, 10 different, highly specialized steels formed the basis of a vehicle. light form. Each steel contains different chemical elements, such as molybdenum and vanadium, which are only mined in a few countries.

While the automotive supply chain was essentially domestic until the 1970sthe automotive industry today heavily dependent on imports. This dependence has created tensions with international trading partners, as evidenced by an increase customs duties on steel.

The Cell Phone and American Life

Another example of technology creating demand for minerals and affecting foreign policy is the cell phone. In 1983, Motorola launched the DynaTACthe first commercial cell phone. It was heavy, expensive, and its battery only lasted half an hour, so few people owned one. Then in 1996, Motorola introduced the flip phonewhich was cheaper, lighter and more convenient to use. The flip phone initiated the mass adoption of cell phones. However, it was still just a phone: unlike today’s smartphones, it only sent and received calls and text messages.

In 2007, Apple has redefined communication with the iPhone, invent the touch screen and integrate an Internet browser. The phone has become a digital platform for browsing, finding information and building a social identity online. Before smartphones, cell phones complemented daily life. Now they are structuring it.

In 2000, fewer than half of American adults owned a cell phone, and almost all did so only sporadically. In 2024, 98% of Americans over the age of 18 reported owning a cell phone, and more 90% owned a smartphone.

Without a smartphone, most people cannot accomplish their daily tasks. Many individuals I am now experiencing nomophobia: They feel anxious without a cell phone.

Around three quarters of all stable elements are represented in the components of each smartphone. These elements are necessary for the highly specialized materials that enable touchscreens, displays, batteries, speakers, microphones and cameras. Many of these items are essential for at least one function and have an unreliable supply chain, what makes them critical.

Critical Materials and AI

Critical materials provide leverage to countries that have a monopoly on their extraction and processing. For example, China gained increased power through its monopoly on rare earth elements. In April 2025, in response to US tariffs, China stopped exporting rare earth magnetswhich are used in cell phones. The resulting geopolitical tensions demonstrate the power embodied in the control of critical minerals.

Mass adoption of AI technology will likely change human behavior and give rise to new technologies, industries, and infrastructure on which the U.S. economy will depend. All of these technologies will require more optimized and specialized materials and create new hardware dependencies.

By exacerbating material dependencies, AI could affect geopolitical relations and reorganize global power.

America has rich deposits many important minerals, but extracting these minerals has challenges. Factors such as slow and expensive permitting, public opposition, environmental concerns, high investment costs, and inadequate labor can all prevent mining companies from accessing these resources. Mass adoption of AI is already increasing pressure to overcome these factors and increase accountability national mining.

While the shift from innovation to hardware dependence has spanned a century for cars and around 20 years for cell phones, the rapid evolution of large language models suggests that the scale will be measured in years for AI. The heat is already on.