Software program Mogul/Secretary of (*checks notes) the Inside Says AI Will Remedy Most cancers

Doug Burgum could not have the title recognition of President Donald Trump’s different cupboard secretaries, like Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem or Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., however Burgum, the Inside Secretary and former governor of North Dakota, nonetheless pops up on TV sometimes to push the president’s agenda.

And he did simply that on Thursday on Fox Information to advertise each synthetic intelligence and fossil fuels. Burgum insisted that any skepticism about AI was unwarranted and that it might “treatment most cancers.”

The Fox & Buddies crew first requested Burgum about studies that information facilities throughout the nation have been driving up vitality prices, a problem that’s been documented ceaselessly in articles from Bloomberg, CNBC, and Pew Research. Bloomberg discovered that, “electrical energy now prices as a lot as 267% extra for a single month than it did 5 years in the past in areas situated close to important information middle exercise.” However Burgum referred to as the declare “100% false.”

“If you wish to discuss information facilities, the best electrical costs on this nation are locations like Hawaii and Maine, and there’s no information middle exercise going there,” mentioned Burgum. “Information facilities, it’s the primary time in historical past we’ve been in a position to take a kilowatt of electrical energy and convert it into intelligence.”

Burgum went on to say that changing electrical energy to intelligence was “the miracle of AI.”

“We are able to truly manufacture intelligence. Do you assume somebody who’s gonna spend $10 billion constructing an AI manufacturing unit is gonna put it in a spot that has excessive electrical costs right this moment? In fact not,” Burgum insisted.

Burgum went on to match the rise of AI to the growth of railroad infrastructure within the nineteenth century, emphasizing that the U.S. is in an AI arms race with China. And Burgum, like each cupboard secretary who’s positioned in entrance of a microphone, credited President Trump with having the imaginative and prescient to make all the good issues occur. Burgum celebrated Trump’s denunciation of unpolluted vitality and the “inexperienced new rip-off,” claiming, with out proof, that inexperienced vitality was someway dangerous for the setting.

It’s true that vitality costs in blue states are typically greater, although solely blaming that on renewable vitality doesn’t make a lot sense. Burgum gave Hawaii for instance of a state with out information facilities however excessive vitality prices, which isn’t intellectually sincere, given Hawaii’s distinctive geographical traits as an island in the midst of the Pacific Ocean. All the things’s costlier in Hawaii.

West Virginia is a deep pink state, with 70% of voters choosing President Trump in 2024. However its vitality costs have soared 10.3% since 2018, based on the New York Times. Lower than 5% of West Virginia’s vitality comes from renewables, based on the state’s Office of Energy.

Burgum’s level doesn’t even make a lot sense within the context. Individuals aren’t complaining that information facilities are being in-built areas with excessive vitality prices; they’re stating that information facilities are rising vitality prices within the areas the place they’re being constructed.

The assume tank Power Innovation modeled what’s prone to occur to vitality prices since Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill. It discovered that pink states like Kentucky, Missouri, and South Carolina may see the best bounce in family vitality costs over the subsequent decade, with the phasing out of a tax credit score for wind and photo voltaic in favor of fossil fuels like pure gasoline.

Fox & Buddies host Ainsley Earhardt made the explanation for Burgum’s look on the present extra specific after the Inside Secretary defined that AI is nice. Earhardt mentioned that individuals in Chandler, Arizona, could be voting on Thursday on whether or not to construct a knowledge middle.

“We have to keep forward of China,” Earhardt said. “And if we wish to win the AI race in opposition to China, we’ve to construct these information facilities. So it’s simply notion. How will we inform… you approaching Fox & Buddies is telling the individuals in Arizona, ‘vote for this as a result of it doesn’t imply your electrical payments are going to go up.’”

Not often is propaganda and the method behind it ever defined fairly so bluntly by the individuals delivering it.

Burgum obtained criticism because the Governor of North Dakota that he was too cozy with the oil foyer. On the Inside Division, he’s pushed for ramping up a rise in oil production. The dialogue on Fox Information bought notably bizarre when Burgum insisted, with none pushback, that AI would treatment most cancers.

“To begin with, software program stumbled on America and the world in our lifetimes, and it was the best extension of human functionality. Now we’ve…AI comes alongside, and it’s the best enhance in productiveness for people ever. I imply, that is gonna, it’s not solely gonna treatment most cancers, nevertheless it’s gonna eradicate all types of drudgery, repetitive jobs,” mentioned Burgum.

“I imply, this drives issues ahead. So jobs shall be totally different, but when each particular person on this nation can have a free assistant that speaks 30 languages and might code. That’s not a nasty factor,” he continued.

Claims that AI has radically elevated productiveness are extremely contested, after all. When you may count on such a grandiose declare about curing most cancers from somebody who’s unaware of expertise, this isn’t some random man. Burgum made his a reimbursement in 2001 when he offered his software program firm, Great Plains Software, to Microsoft for $1.1 billion. He’s now reportedly value about $100 million, based on Forbes. In idea, Burgum ought to have a bit skepticism concerning the wildest claims coming from AI corporations, given his tech background.

Burgum by no means outlined any of the phrases he was utilizing, together with AI, which is utilized in all kinds of contexts as of late. The AI tech that’s capturing down missiles shouldn’t be the identical AI tech that tells you to put glue on your pizza for a tasty snack. He additionally didn’t outline a selected sort of most cancers, which is vital given the truth that there are such a lot of subtypes of most cancers that require totally different remedies. A common most cancers treatment is broadly regarded as illogical.

However all of those speaking factors about AI clearly serve the pursuits of Huge Tech and the individuals who’ve gotten so near Trump—all the identical individuals who have been revealed to be on the quilt of Time journal right this moment as “Individual of the Yr.” Whether or not they prefer it or not, they do appear to be an enormous consider rising family vitality prices.

The Trump regime could have stumbled upon a brand new technique for bringing down the price of vitality, even when it’s wildly unethical. On Wednesday, the U.S. seized a Venezuelan oil tanker, resulting in questions concerning the justification for such a transfer. U.S. officers declare the vessel was violating sanctions.

White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was requested particularly by Fox Information’ Peter Doocey whether or not Trump would use the seized oil to “attempt to assist Individuals with affordability right here in america.”

“As you understand, Peter, the vessel will go to a U.S. port and america does intend to grab the oil,” Leavitt mentioned. “Nevertheless, there’s a authorized course of for the seizure of that oil, and that authorized course of shall be adopted.”

Reuters reported Thursday that the Division of Justice and Division of Homeland Safety had been planning the operation “for months,” and it intends to grab extra oil from Venezuela.