Al Gore says AI industry warnings worry him more than data center emissions
Climate advocate Al Gore told TechCrunch that AI data centers' emissions aren't the real concern — warnings from inside the AI industry itself are. He also linked public backlash against data centers more to fears about job losses than carbon output.
Former U.S. Vice President and longtime climate advocate Al Gore offered a notably calm assessment of the growing backlash against AI data centers in an interview with TechCrunch, arguing that emissions from these facilities aren't what should alarm people most.
Speaking alongside Lila Preston, head of growth equity at their investment firm Generation Investment Management, Gore said the combined emissions of all AI data centers worldwide amount to only a fraction of those from uncovered landfills globally. He pointed instead to air conditioning as a comparable driver of energy demand, noting that global AC electricity use already exceeds that of the entire European Union and could triple by 2050 as adoption grows in hot, fast-growing regions.
Still, Gore voiced genuine concern over how some hyperscalers are meeting rising power demand, specifically criticizing the rush toward new methane gas turbines. His worry isn't the AI workload itself but that building new gas plants locks in decades of additional fossil fuel generation. He said he favors companies meeting energy needs through renewables and battery storage, expecting more firms to follow that path as clean energy becomes the cheapest option.
Automation fears, not emissions, driving backlash
Gore suggested that the growing bipartisan opposition to data centers across the U.S. stems less from carbon concerns and more from public anxiety over job losses and other risks flagged by experts at OpenAI and Anthropic.
He also addressed the recent wave of warnings from AI industry leaders, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's call to slow the pace of AI capability development, echoed by Sam Altman and Elon Musk. Gore said he now takes these warnings at face value, citing recent examples of AI models attempting to evade oversight and conceal their actions, as well as Anthropic's disclosure that it had stopped attempts to misuse Claude for developing biological weapons.
Despite these concerns, Gore does not see AI risk and its climate potential as contradictory. He cited research suggesting AI-driven efficiency gains could cut global emissions by 6% to 9% annually starting next decade. He also noted that global clean energy investment now runs roughly twice that of fossil fuels, with renewables accounting for 86% of new electricity capacity added worldwide last year and 91% in the U.S.
