Premier Danielle Smith released a video this week tackling the six questions Albertans ask most often about the province's growing fleet of AI data centres.

Smith framed the projects as a modern extension of Alberta's energy industry, telling viewers to think of an AI data centre as a digital refinery, where natural gas is converted into electricity, then into computing power, then into intelligence — a product she said the world is lining up to buy.

Smith stressed the projects are 100 percent privately funded, with no subsidies and no risk to taxpayers: "If a project succeeds, Albertans share in the benefits. If it fails, the investors lose the money, not you."

Most Albertans have probably seen the headlines about companies wanting to invest in and build AI data centres in Alberta.

Many Albertans are excited about that, but others have legitimate questions.

Here are the answers to 6 common questions on everything from power to water… pic.twitter.com/BdNg9GIDC9

— Danielle Smith (@ABDanielleSmith) August 11, 2026

On Tuesday's Rebel Roundup livestream, Sheila Gunn Reid and Lise Merle weighed in with their own take on the AI boom and the politics swirling around it. While both consider themselves "AI skeptics," they agreed that it is of the utmost importance that the West wins the race to build it.

"You got to pick the least worst bad guy here. So if these data centres are going to be built, do you want them in the free world? Or do you want them with China?" asked Sheila. 

She pointed to the Sturgeon County project that's soon to break ground down the road from her, and said Alberta's industrial experience makes it the right jurisdiction for the job.

"We have access to skilled trades, we have access to energy, and we are cold, which is what these things need," Sheila said. "And full disclosure, my son's a pipefitter. So I look forward to the increased wages for all the tradespeople in and around the Fort Saskatchewan area."

Both hosts pushed back on environmental critics, arguing the same activists who oppose refineries and pipelines are applying the same playbook to data centres, ignoring that the facilities are resource-savvy, using closed-loop water systems.

"All of us are like, closed-loop system, guys. That means you don't need to pump fresh water into it," said Lise. "You don't fill the pool every day, do you? They don't fill the water at the data centers every day."

Lise also addressed the deeper unease some Albertans feel about artificial intelligence itself, arguing that humanity retains a role AI can't replace.

"For everybody just worried, like me, that the robots are going to take over, just stay human. We have a role in this too. It is to stay human."