When did al gore state that he created the internet?

Answer 1

He didn't use the word invented, but On 9 March 1999, during an interview with Wolf Blitzer of CNN, Gore was asked what were the differences between himself from his opponent in the race for the nomination for President in 2000. His answer was, in part, "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the internet."

In 1988 Al Gore sponsored the National High Performance Computer Act which created a national computing plan and began connecting other Universities and Libraries to the existing ARPANET network.

Then, Al Gore began to craft the High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991 (commonly referred to as "The Gore Bill") after hearing the 1988 report toward a National Research Network submitted to Congress by a group chaired by UCLA professor of computer science, Leonard Kleinrock, one of the central creators of the ARPANET (the ARPANET, first deployed by Kleinrock and others in 1969, is the predecessor of the Internet). The bill was passed on December 9, 1991 and led to the National Information Infrastructure (NII) which Gore referred to as the "information superhighway."

While it might have sounded like he was taking sole credit for the internet, he was indicating that he supported economic conditions in the US that would allow such new developments as the internet to take place in American society. He was, indeed, awarded a lifetime achievement award for contributions to the Internet in 2005.

The Snopes site has more complete information.

Answer 2

He had a role in advancing legislation that made it come into being.