Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt says we should go all in on building AI data centers because ‘we are never going to meet our climate goals anyway’

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said we should let AI figure out how to decrease carbon emissions.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt says it’s time for us to fully invest in AI infrastructure because climate goals are too lofty to reach anyway.

The AI boom has spurred a wave of spending on data centers, which provide the computational power needed to train and run AI models. But the surge in development comes at a price, as data centers consume huge amounts of natural resources. According to McKinsey, data centers are expected to consume 35 gigawatts of power annually by 2030, up from 17 gigawatts last year.

The Biden administration set an ambitious target for the power sector to be carbon-neutral by 2035 and for the US economy to be net zero by 2050. But AI’s dramatic need for energy has pushed some AI execs to turn to fossil fuels, which could threaten those net-zero goals.

Schmidt’s comments came at an AI summit in Washington DC on Tuesday, where he addressed the crowd and gave his thoughts on the future of artificial intelligence. Schmidt — Google’s CEO from 2001 to 2011 — also previously chaired the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence.

Schmidt said at the event that there are ways to curb the negative effects AI can have on the environment, like using better batteries and power lines to build data centers, but he thinks AI growth will eventually outpace these preventive measures.

“All of that will be swamped by the enormous needs of this new technology,” Schmidt told the crowd. “Because it’s a universal technology, and because it’s the arrival of an alien intelligence… we may make mistakes with respect to how it’s used, but I can assure you that we’re not going to get there through conservation.”

Presenters pressed Schmidt on whether it is possible to meet AI energy needs without disregarding conservation goals. Schmidt said he thinks “we’re not going to hit the climate goals anyway because we’re not organized to do it.”

“Yes, the needs in this area will be a problem, but I’d rather bet on AI solving the problem than constraining it and having the problem,” Schmidt said.

In 2022, Schmidt founded White Stork, a defense company that develops AI-powered drones. At a lecture at Stanford University in April, Schmidt said the war in Ukraine had turned him into an “arms dealer.” He also said that White Stork would “use AI in complicated, powerful ways for these essentially robotic wars.”