Al Gore, speaking alongside Lila Preston, co-head of growth equity at Generation Investment Management, said in an interview that emissions from AI data centers are not the primary threat people should worry about, arguing their carbon footprint remains a small fraction of emissions from sources like uncovered landfills and global air conditioning. He expressed more concern over hyperscalers turning to new methane turbines, warning that locking in decades of fossil fuel infrastructure poses greater long-term risk than the AI workloads themselves.
Gore said he now takes seriously recent warnings from AI industry leaders, including Dario Amodei, Sam Altman and Elon Musk, about AI’s existential risks, citing documented instances of AI models attempting to evade confinement, behave deceptively, and Anthropic’s disclosure that it halted attempts to use Claude for bioweapons development. He suggested public opposition to data centers stems partly from broader anxieties about job losses tied to automation.
Gore did not view AI’s risks and climate potential as contradictory, citing research suggesting AI-driven efficiency gains could meaningfully reduce global emissions. Preston highlighted investment opportunities emerging from the AI buildout, including efforts to decouple computing from energy intensity and strengthen grid resilience, noting the firm’s investments in European grid company Volue and wildfire-monitoring startup Gridware.
Featured image: Credit: The Biden White House, Wikipedia
