Al Gore tells TechCrunch: AI leaders' warnings sincere, not a hoax

Gore's stance is not new. In May he described AI data centers as a "cause for deep concern, but not panic," and in this conversation his point about emissions was one of scale: all AI data centers together, he said, emit only a fraction of what uncovered landfills do. He offered a comparable build-out that draws far less protest — air conditioning, which the International Energy Agency estimates already consumes more electricity annually than the entire European Union, with ownership still under 15% across the hottest, fastest-growing parts of the world and demand expected to triple by 2050.

His concern about power sourcing is narrower than the headline backlash. What worries him about hyperscalers turning to new methane turbines is less the AI workload itself than the prospect that new gas plants lock in decades more fossil fuel generation; he said he much prefers companies supplying their energy needs with renewables and batteries, and expects more to move that way because renewables are increasingly cheapest. He also tied the AI moment to Generation's 10th annual Sustainability Trends Report, which notes this is the second time in four years the world has been "brutally reminded" that fossil fuels are a volatile energy source — first Russia's invasion of Ukraine, now the disruption to the Strait of Hormuz.

On AI risk, Gore does not see it as opposed to AI's climate potential. He cited a study by economist Nicholas Stern of the London School of Economics projecting that AI applications aimed at efficiency and waste elimination could drive global emissions down by 6% to 9% per year starting next decade. Whether that potential outweighs the risks he takes seriously — including the deceptive behavior he described and the biological-weapons misuse Anthropic says it stopped — is likely to hinge on how forcefully the labs themselves act on those warnings, and on whether grid build-out tilts toward renewables or new gas.