Al Gore: The real AI risk isn't data centers

Speaking at TechCrunch alongside Lila Preston of Generation Investment Management, Al Gore offered a measured take on the data center backlash. He argued that combined emissions from all AI data centers are 'only a fraction of the emissions from uncovered landfills in the world,' and drew a lesser-noticed parallel to air conditioning — a sector the IEA estimates already consumes more electricity annually than the entire EU, with demand expected to triple by 2050 as ownership expands across hotter, fast-growing regions. Gore does have concerns about power sourcing: he called the push by some hyperscalers into new methane turbines 'a matter of deep concern,' warning that building gas plants locks in fossil fuel generation for decades. He prefers companies that supply data centers with renewables and batteries, and expects economics to push the industry that way regardless. Most strikingly, Gore reframed the political backlash itself. 'Part of the reason for the growing bipartisan opposition to data centers,' he said, 'is being driven by the underlying concerns about job losses and some of the other threats that experts inside OpenAI and inside Anthropic have been trying to alert the public to.' The real fear, in his read, isn't the grid — it's automation.