Sam Altman: AI Developers Have Fumbled at Communicating Benefits
Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, told Bloomberg Television that the AI industry has done a terrible job of communicating the technology’s benefits, leaving developers exposed to a growing backlash. According to him, this failure resulted in 75 data centre projects worth approximately $130 billion being blocked or delayed by local opposition in just one quarter.
"I think we have done a bad job ourselves… people rightly get afraid when they feel AI leaders may not want them to have more power and autonomy," Altman stated.
In Europe, the main obstacle is grid capacity, with Denmark holding roughly 60GW of queued projects against a peak demand of only 7GW. This situation has led to a pause in grid connections, highlighting the physical limitations of the infrastructure.
While the industry has been running a charm offensive to get these sites built, the European argument relies on filed numbers rather than persuasion. Since 2024, data centres with at least 500kW of installed IT power demand have been required to report their energy and sustainability performance into a European database.
Altman’s insights emphasize the industry’s need for better communication and transparency regarding AI technologies.