Bill Gates has warned that governments around the world are dangerously unprepared for the global challenges posed by artificial intelligence, adding his voice to a growing chorus of technology leaders urging faster action as AI capabilities accelerate.
The 70-year-old Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist, long regarded as an advocate for AI’s potential, said in a new Reuters interview that the technology could also eliminate jobs, fuel cyberattacks, deepen economic inequality and become addictive for users.
“I don’t think any government is nearly as deep on this as they have to be…Governments are way behind on this one,” Gates said. His comments came after several prominent tech executives called on President Trump and world leaders this week to work together on tougher AI industry safeguards.
Gates said he has raised his concerns in conversations with Trump and members of his administration. He also hopes to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping later this year as he pushes for international cooperation on AI regulation.
Comparing artificial intelligence to a threat from science-fiction films, Gates said the technology could force countries to find common ground. “There’s all sorts of movies where some aliens are coming, and magically the US and China and everybody comes together to solve the problem,” Gates said. “AI is kind of like this alien intelligence. It’s here, and we better do like it shows in those movies.”
Fresh concerns about the dangers of advanced AI emerged over the weekend after Jacob Coxon, a researcher formerly employed by Anthropic and OpenAI, left his position and warned that artificial intelligence “could kill us all by the end of the decade.”
Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei later released a lengthy essay urging competing AI companies to ease the pace of development. He cited concerns over recursive self-improvement, or RSI, a scenario in which AI systems become capable enough to enhance themselves independently. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX founder Elon Musk supported Amodei’s appeal.
Even with those warnings, Gates stressed that AI could bring major benefits, particularly by helping improve living conditions for some of the world’s poorest communities.
The Gates Foundation on Tuesday committed at least $1 billion over the next two years to broaden access to AI worldwide and examine how the technology can be used to reduce social inequality. The initiative is part of the nonprofit’s previously announced plan to spend $9 billion each year.
The funding will support partners working in education, health care and agriculture. It will also go toward strengthening the data used to train AI systems, with the goal of helping large language models function in every language spoken around the world.
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“For health it’s hard to overstate what the potential is,” said Gates, who called out the ability to help frontline health care workers and discover new drugs and vaccines.
Gates also acknowledged public backlash over his ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying it has not had any effect on his foundation’s work.
“In terms of having access to government leaders, or you know, journalists being willing to interview me, I don’t see any diminishment,” he said, adding that requests to work with the foundation on reducing child deaths and ending malaria has not reduced “even one iota.”
In sworn testimony to Congress in June, Gates admitted to having affairs with two Russian women, claiming Epstein had tried to use the infidelity to blackmail Gates into reconnecting after they cut ties.
Gates testified that he was introduced to Epstein in 2011, three years after the disgraced financier pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution and four years after Epstein reached a controversial non-prosecution agreement.
Gates said the relationship ended by December 2014.
The Microsoft co-founder and some staffers at the Gates Foundation had been named in the Department of Justice’s Epstein files – a trove of hundreds of thousands of files showing the sex criminal’s communications with powerful pols, celebs and financiers.
Gates has not been accused of any crimes and has apologized for his relationship with Epstein, calling it a “grave error in judgment.”
An external review at his foundation found no payments to Epstein or links to criminal activities.