Article By Frank Bergman
Billionaire Bill Gates is warning that artificial intelligence has become “the most dangerous weapon of all time” and is calling for global governments to take control of the technology as humanity faces decades of upheaval in “the new AI era.”
The Microsoft co-founder warned that rapidly advancing systems could enable devastating cyberattacks, empower bioterrorists, and eventually eliminate the need for much of today’s human labor.
Speaking with Nilay Patel on The Verge’s “Decoder” podcast, Gates argued that voluntary cooperation from AI companies is nowhere near sufficient for technology with such destructive potential.
“Today’s debate is literally whether the government should even pay attention to the dangers here,” Gates warned.
“You don’t even have to show what you’re doing and so it’s a ‘voluntarily call me if you’d like’ type of thing, which is clearly inadequate for the most dangerous weapon of all time.”
Gates Says AI Threat Dwarfs Nuclear Weapons
Gates has described AI in recent interviews as “the most dangerous thing that humans have ever gone near,” saying it “makes nuclear weapons look like nothing.”
His warnings encompass attacks on banks and power grids, biological threats, and the possibility that developers could lose control of their most advanced systems.
Gates argues that recent advances have already pushed AI beyond a critical threshold.
“It’s the basic power of the models towards everything: social relationships, the job market, cyberattacks, bioterrorism attacks,” Gates said.
“We’ve crossed the threshold of capability that this is by far the most dangerous technology ever invented, and it’ll have pervasive effects in the economy and how war is fought.”
Despite those extraordinary warnings, Gates rejected being characterized as an AI doomer.
“No, I’m not a doomer,” Gates said.
“I’m a strong voice to say that this is the most profound technology, both in its ability to do good and the rate of change that society will go through.”
Billionaire Calls for Government Safety Controls
Gates argued that competition between leading AI developers makes it impossible to leave responsibility for safety with the companies themselves.
“I’ve heard people talk about pacing the frontier or making sure that models get reviewed by governments,” Gates said.
He pointed to government regulation of transportation as a comparison, arguing that AI warrants far stronger scrutiny.
“We usually think of governments as playing this key role in safety,” Gates said.
“In fact, for things that are not a millionth as dangerous as AI — car crashes, plane crashes — we rely on the government to establish strong technical standards, to review problems.
“Once you have multiple competitors, the level of responsibility can’t be with the companies.
“It’s completely obvious,” he continued.
“The responsibility becomes the government’s responsibility, just like it is with every other dangerous product, although the magnitude there and the degree of change is minuscule by comparison.”
His proposed response would place governments at the center of AI safety, with technical standards and mandatory reviews replacing the voluntary approach he condemned.
Robots Could Take Over Physical Work Within Two Decades
Gates also outlined a future in which humanoid robots could build homes, grow food, and perform surgery within roughly 20 years if development continues without a major slowdown.
In that scenario, much human labor would no longer be necessary to produce most goods and services.
Gates sees the possibility of material abundance beyond that transformation.
But he warned that getting there would create severe disruption and divide people into winners and losers.
“My big concern is this 20-year transition period, where they’ll have winners and losers and a lot of disruption, and we have to get through that in order to get to that period of abundance,” Gates said.
However, like many promoting the new era of “AI utopia,” Gates failed to explain how humans will survive without work or how the public will benefit from this “abundance” generated by private companies.
The warning follows his late-August essay, in which he wrote that “even under the best circumstances, the transition to this new AI era will be one of the most turbulent times in human history.”
Human Work Could Become a Protected Exception
Gates suggested that some people could embrace life at the technological frontier while others reject it, drawing a comparison with groups such as the Amish.
He also floated reserving certain occupations and activities for humans, including childcare, food preparation, art, and sports, even if machines become capable of outperforming people.
Gates expressed particular concern that younger generations could face nihilism amid the disruption.
His forecast puts a stark question before the public: how to preserve human purpose and livelihoods through a technological transformation that he says could make much human work unnecessary, while handing governments sweeping new responsibility for overseeing the systems driving it.
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