Billionaire climate tech investor Bill Gates said artificial intelligence will “pay for itself” when it comes to its associated greenhouse gas emissions as the technology will help push forward the energy transition.
AI will make data centers more efficient, helping them represent a smaller share of future power demand, he said in a Bloomberg TV interview. Gates said the technology may one day use as much as 6% of global electricity — more than the estimated 2% today — but felt estimates above 10% were wrong.
The Microsoft co-founder is in London this week attending a three-day summit for his venture fund Breakthrough Energy, which has invested in more than a hundred companies involved in the energy transition. In a wide-ranging interview, Gates also spoke of the potential for carbon capture to help the world reach net zero, saying removing emissions from the atmosphere is a limited solution due to its costs.
The key will be to get the cost to “well below $100 a ton,” Gates said, adding he pays $200 a ton to offset his own personal emissions.