Photo credit: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg

Billionaire climate tech investor Bill Gates believes artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to accelerate innovation and combat climate change.

“The biggest thing [in AI] is going to be advancing medical science, advancing education, and, taking this climate issue and getting that innovation to move even faster,” said Gates in a recent interview with Sky News.

However, he cautions that the revolutionary tech’s positive impact depends on it being used responsibly and ethically, explaining:

“AI is so important that we have to make sure it’s mostly being used by people with good intent.”

Gates further emphasized that while new technologies are often harnessed for good by professionals like teachers, doctors, and scientists, they can also be exploited for malicious purposes like cyberattacks or political manipulation.

“And so you have to make sure the good guys are staying ahead in detecting and preventing that type of [AI] usage,” the Microsoft co-founder concluded.

Gates’s comments follow a recent World Meteorological Organization report showing record-breaking and extreme environmental changes. Microsoft, which promised to be carbon-negative by 2030, placed that goal in peril as its carbon emissions reached nearly 30% since 2020, primarily due to the construction of data centers, according to its May sustainability report.

Sustainability concerns around AI

AI has also received increased scrutiny from critics, who say it will significantly raise energy demands. Training just one AI model can produce over 626,000 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent, which is five times the amount an average car emits in its entire lifetime, according to the MIT Technology Review. In some areas, data centers are already consuming so much power that it's exceeding the available supply, potentially jeopardizing national energy transition plans.

Gates countered such worries in a separate interview, telling Bloomberg that AI’s green benefits will outweigh its emissions. According to the billionaire, the technology could make data centers use energy more efficiently, reducing their overall power consumption and environmental impact. While he predicts that AI’s energy consumption could triple, he refutes claims it could exceed 10%, placing his projects at only 6% of global electricity.

Gates also argued that the additional demand from electric cars, heat pumps, and green steel manufacturing will all “dwarf even this amazing demand for data centers now.”

Since 2015, Gates’s climate-focused investment company, Breakthrough Energy, has put $2.2 billion into over 160 startups and other projects aimed at slowing climate change while also making money for investors. Gates has made additional investments on his own as well.

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