Bill Gates has delivered a stark warning about artificial intelligence, arguing that experts and governments are not doing enough to prevent the technology from falling into dangerous hands.
Speaking to CNN on Sunday about the growing concerns surrounding AI, the Microsoft co-founder said he believes a workable balance can be found to protect society while allowing innovation to continue. However, that balance has yet to be established.
“Just as we regulate planes, cars, and medicines, we need safeguards that help us realize AI’s incredible potential while reducing the risks,” Gates wrote on X.
“They won’t eliminate every harm, but they can help prevent misuse by bad actors. We’re not where we need to be yet—and this deserves much more of our attention.”
CNN anchor Jake Tapper began the interview by recalling Gates’ warning that AI could make it “much easier for bad actors to develop deadly bioweapons.”
“You said the risk of having a bioterrorist attack is now fifty times the risk of a natural pandemic,” Tapper said, asking Gates how soon such a catastrophe could occur and whether world leaders were doing enough to stop it.
“Well, no, we’re not doing enough,” Gates replied. “The front that we’ll probably see most dramatically in the next year is cyberattacks.”
He said the immediate threat was not AI suddenly becoming uncontrollable, describing that as a problem whose biggest effects may still be years away.
CNN’s Jake Tapper recalled Gates’ warning that AI could help bad actors develop deadly bioweapons as the tech leader insisted, “we’re not doing enough”
Gates said policymakers have yet to find the right balance between protecting the public and allowing AI to develop
“It’s really bad people using AI, particularly when they can remove all the safeguards,” Gates said. “When you have bad people, no safeguards, and then the latest models—that’s where, over the next year, we are going to have a lot of negative surprises.”
Tapper then asked whether Gates was giving in to “doomerism,” referring to the billionaire’s earlier description of AI as the most dangerous technology ever—one that could make nuclear weapons appear insignificant.
Gates responded that leading figures in the AI industry, including OpenAI chief Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, had also been warning publicly about the technology’s risks.
Although he acknowledged that some predictions had become exaggerated or focused on unlikely outcomes, Gates said AI was more dangerous than cars, planes or medicines—industries that already operate under extensive safety regulations.
“There are some grim possibilities if we don’t maintain control, and I do think the industry is doing its job to raise the alarm bell,” he said.
Gates added that careful regulation could reduce the dangers, but argued that public debate was often dominated by two extremes: removing safeguards altogether or attempting to halt AI development entirely.
“Finding that middle ground, like we did with planes and cars and medicines, is something we haven’t developed much sophistication around right now,” he said. “But I do believe that middle ground exists.”
Gates’ latest comments follow a series of warnings from prominent AI researchers and technology executives as increasingly powerful systems continue to advance at a rapid pace.
Gates warned that advanced AI could make it dangerously difficult to tell scientists developing lifesaving medicines from people seeking to create biological weapons
In an earlier essay, Gates argued that the world had already moved beyond the stage of simply watching for warning signs, with AI progressing at what he called an “uncontrolled” rate.
“AI will either be the greatest equalizer ever invented, or the worst source of injustice,” he wrote. “Even under the best circumstances, the transition to this new AI era will be one of the most turbulent times in human history.”
Just days before his CNN appearance, Gates spoke to NBC and called for stronger government oversight of emerging AI systems, warning that the technology could potentially contribute to events resulting in “a billion deaths.”
“AI is certainly powerful enough to drive events that cause a billion deaths,” Gates told journalist Kristen Welker. “Even though it’s pretty hard to get to 100 percent of humanity, there’s never been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with ill intent using the latest AI tools.”
RELATED: Escaped Inmate Captured After Police Helicopter Spots Him With Infrared Camera
When Welker asked what could prevent an AI-related disaster, Gates pointed to the difficulty of distinguishing beneficial scientific work from malicious research.
He said AI could blur the line between researchers trying to develop treatments for serious illnesses and individuals attempting to engineer biological weapons.
“I wish it was easier to distinguish good intent, like ‘I want to design a new drug for a disease,’ versus negative intent, which is ‘I want to design a tool of bioterrorism,’” Gates said.
Because of those risks, he argued that advanced AI models must be subject to strict monitoring and oversight, with the United States taking a leading role in creating industry-wide standards.
Appearing on NBC, Gates urged stronger government oversight of AI and warned that the technology could contribute to events causing “a billion deaths”
“Because those are so close, we do need to monitor any sophisticated model and record exactly what’s being done,” he said.
Gates suggested China would likely adopt comparable measures, but maintained that the US should move first to establish clear rules for the rapidly expanding AI sector.
“You’ll hear from the industry—it’s a very doable thing. It would not slow them down dramatically,” he said.
He distinguished between introducing safety requirements and the wider argument over whether the development of AI should be slowed or paused.
“It’s completely irresponsible not to require every AI to have these safeguards and monitoring capabilities,” Gates said, adding that the central question was whether those measures would be introduced immediately.
President Donald Trump rejected the idea earlier this month that rapid AI progress would bring about the end of humanity, describing such predictions as “things that won’t happen.”
“We’re leading China in AI. We’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI wins,” Trump told reporters at his golf course in Doonbeg while attending the Irish Open earlier this month.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has also opposed a pause on AI development. In a CNN interview earlier in September, he said, “We cannot put a moratorium on this because China will overlap us.”
Donald Trump dismissed the idea that AI advances could end humanity, calling such predictions “things that won’t happen”
Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned and accused the company and OpenAI of failing to do enough to address AI’s potential dangers
Democratic leaders, by contrast, have generally expressed greater support for regulating the emerging technology.
Former President Barack Obama recently shared his concerns during a private gathering, according to reporting by The New York Times.
“This is something that is moving very fast in private hands, and if we don’t get on top of it, I think [it] can be dangerous,” Obama reportedly said at an event this month. He also urged House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, whom Obama believes could become the next Speaker after the November elections, to take action.
The debate intensified after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned earlier this month, accusing both Anthropic and rival OpenAI of failing to adequately confront the technology’s possible consequences.
Coxon warned that some researchers in the field believe AI could potentially “kill all humans” by the end of the decade.
Several days later, an Anthropic report revealed that the company had disrupted multiple potential efforts to develop biological weapons with the help of its AI systems during the year.
According to the company’s AI misuse report, obtained by The New York Times, scientists had used Anthropic’s platforms to conduct research that could potentially support the creation of biological weapons.
Anthropic said it could not establish whether the work had a legitimate scientific purpose or a malicious one. The company acknowledged that legitimate biological research can lead to breakthroughs such as vaccines, but said it chose to act cautiously because similar methods could also be used to produce dangerous pathogens.
