A few weeks ago, I joined a small group of reporters for a wide-ranging conversation with Bill Gates about climate change, its causes and potential solutions. When the topic turned to the issue of just how much energy artificial intelligence was using, Gates was surprisingly sanguine. “Let’s not go overboard on this,” he said during a media briefing on the sidelines of an event he was hosting in London. AI data centers represent a relatively small additional load on the grid, Gates said.