Climate change? No worry - we can solve that later, argues Doug Burgum

You would think that the government official responsible for safeguarding the US' natural resources would be opposed to abandoning climate change mitigation pledges in favor of firing up fossil fuels to power AI development.

This is the Trump administration, however, so you'd be wrong.

Speaking at a natural gas industry event in Italy this week, US Interior Secretary and former software exec Doug Burgum said that the true existential threat facing the world is America losing the AI arms race. Sure, climate change and its effect on future generations worry him, but "that's all solvable," Burgum said.

"Yes, I'm worried about the future," said Burgum, who sold the accounting software company Great Plains to Microsoft for $1.1 billion in 2001, well before starting his political career. As he put it, "The real existential threat right now is not a degree of climate change. It's the fact that we could lose the arms race if we don't have enough power."

...read more at theregister.com