The Fourth Utility: Water, Energy, and Computational Power as Fundamental Rights in the Age of AI-Driven Silver Economy

Stefano Valente, MD

ORCID: 0009-0005-0152-2577

23 June 2026

While the European Union invests heavily in the Silver Economy and AI for healthcare and long-term care, a fundamental infrastructural injustice remains largely invisible: computational power is not distributed according to need, but according to capital and geography.

This position paper argues that access to computational resources — the ability to run, benefit from, and interact with AI systems — must be recognised as the fourth utility, alongside water, electricity, and telecommunications.

Key findings

•  Over 38% of EU adults aged 65+ live in low-connectivity or thinly populated areas.

•  More than 60% of European hyperscale data centre capacity is concentrated in just five metropolitan clusters (Amsterdam, Dublin, Frankfurt, London, Paris).

•  In Italy, 44.6% of people over 65 have never used the internet, with much higher figures in rural southern regions and small municipalities.

•  These same areas show systematically higher energy grid vulnerability (higher SAIDI), creating a compound disadvantage for AI-dependent assistive technologies.

I introduce the Computational Utility Index (CUI), a novel composite indicator at municipal level that integrates connectivity, device adequacy, energy reliability and digital health literacy. Municipalities below a CUI threshold of 0.40 are classified as Computationally Deprived Areas (CDAs). Early estimates suggest 22–27% of Italian municipalities would fall into this category, affecting 3.8–4.2 million residents over 65.

Policy proposals

1.  Extend the Universal Service Obligation (USO) logic to computational access within the EU AI regulatory framework.

2.  Create a Digital Solidarity Fund financed by a levy on data centre energy consumption, prioritising elderly residents in CDAs.

3.  Make CUI-adjusted equity impact assessments mandatory for reimbursement and deployment of AI health technologies.

4.  Require load-shedding protocols and human-AI complementarity measures in grid-vulnerable areas.

Full paper now available on Zenodo:

→ The Fourth Utility: Water, Energy, and Computational Power as Fundamental Rights

Computational power is following the same historical trajectory as clean water and electricity: from luxury good to contested resource to recognised social right. The Silver Economy will either deepen existing inequalities or become a genuine vehicle for inclusion — depending on the choices we make now.

I look forward to your thoughts and constructive criticism in the comments.

This post was drafted with the assistance of an AI language model as a dialogic writing tool. All concepts, analysis and proposals remain the sole intellectual work of the author.

References

1.  Eurostat. Ageing Europe – Looking at the lives of older people in the EU. 2023.

2.  IEA. Electricity 2024. 2024.

3.  Istat. Cittadini, imprese e ICT. 2023.

4.  European Commission. COM(2023) 577 & COM(2026) 502.