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Bill Gates

co-founder of Microsoft; chair of the Gates Foundation

4 records

Portrait source: Bogdan Hoyaux / European Union, CC BY 4.0

Records

Today, an even greater risk than a naturally caused pandemic is that a non-government group will use open source AI tools to design a bioterrorism weapon.

Bill Gates

co-founder of Microsoft; chair of the Gates Foundation

In his January 2026 'Year Ahead' essay, Gates wrote that an even greater risk today than a naturally caused pandemic is that a non-government group will use open source AI tools to design a bioterrorism weapon.

Chair and Board Member, Gates FoundationPublished January 9, 2026 · date of remarks not establishedOptimism with footnotes

SourceArchived
Context and checks

Surrounding words

In 2015, I gave a TED talk warning that the world was not ready to handle a pandemic. If we had prepared properly for the Covid pandemic, the amount of human suffering would have been dramatically less. Today, an even greater risk than a naturally caused pandemic is that a non-government group will use open source AI tools to design a bioterrorism weapon. The second challenge is job market disruption. AI capabilities will allow us to make far more goods and services with less labor. In a mathematical sense, we should be able to allocate these new capabilities in ways that benefit everyone.

What this quote does not say

  • The passage gives no probability estimate and does not define which open source AI capabilities would suffice.
  • The comparison is to naturally caused pandemics, not an explicit quantified casualty scenario.

How this was checked

  • Quote matched character-for-character against the captured page.

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an AI reviewer that read the whole source · an automatic character-by-character check

Governments should consider creating a global body for AI similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Bill Gates

co-founder of Microsoft; chair of the Gates Foundation

In the same July 2023 essay arguing that AI risks are manageable, Gates wrote that governments should consider creating a global body for AI similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Gates VenturesPublished July 11, 2023 · date of remarks not establishedThe risks of AI are real but manageable

SourceArchived
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Surrounding words

That’s a scary thought, but we have history to guide us. Although the world’s nuclear nonproliferation regime has its faults, it has prevented the all-out nuclear war that my generation was so afraid of when we were growing up. Governments should consider creating a global body for AI similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency. AI will take away people’s jobs. In the next few years, the main impact of AI on work will be to help people do their jobs more efficiently.

What this quote does not say

  • The essay says governments should consider the body; it does not specify powers, membership, enforcement, or whether the body would govern frontier development generally.
  • The role evidence predates the essay by about six weeks and identifies an affiliation rather than a formal title.

How this was checked

  • Quote matched character-for-character against the captured page.

Reviewed by

an AI reviewer that read the whole source · an automatic character-by-character check

One thing that’s clear from everything that has been written so far about the risks of AI—and a lot has been written—is that no one has all the answers. Another thing that’s clear to me is that the future of AI is not as grim as some people think or as rosy as others think. The risks are real, but I am optimistic that they can be managed. As I go through each concern, I’ll return to a few themes:

Bill Gates

co-founder of Microsoft; chair of the Gates Foundation

In a July 2023 essay titled 'The risks of AI are real but manageable,' Gates wrote that no one has all the answers about AI risk, that the future of AI is not as grim as some people think or as rosy as others think, and that the risks are real but he is optimistic they can be managed.

Gates VenturesPublished July 11, 2023 · date of remarks not establishedThe risks of AI are real but manageable

SourceArchived
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Surrounding words

I’ll have more to say in the future about the benefits of AI, but in this post, I want to acknowledge the concerns I hear and read most often, many of which I share, and explain how I think about them. One thing that’s clear from everything that has been written so far about the risks of AI—and a lot has been written—is that no one has all the answers. Another thing that’s clear to me is that the future of AI is not as grim as some people think or as rosy as others think. The risks are real, but I am optimistic that they can be managed. As I go through each concern, I’ll return to a few themes: - Many of the problems caused by AI have a historical precedent. For example, it will have a big impact on education, but so did handheld calculators a few decades ago and, more recently, allowing computers in the classroom.

How this was checked

  • Quote matched character-for-character against the captured page.

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an AI reviewer that read the whole source · an automatic character-by-character check

Statements they signed

FROM THE SIGNED STATEMENT

Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.

Signed statement: “Statement on AI Extinction Risk” (CAIS)

Bill Gates

co-founder of Microsoft; chair of the Gates Foundation

Signed as part of a group statement. Not spoken.

Bill Gates signed the Statement on AI Extinction Risk, which said reducing the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside pandemics and nuclear war.

Gates VenturesDate not establishedStatement on AI Extinction Risk

SourceArchived
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Surrounding words

Scientists Sam Altman CEO, OpenAI Other Notable Figures Dario Amodei CEO, Anthropic AI Scientists Dawn Song Professor of Computer Science, UC Berkeley AI Scientists Ted Lieu Congressman, US House of Representatives Other Notable Figures Bill Gates Ventures Other Notable Figures Ya-Qin Zhang Professor and Dean, AIR, Tsinghua University AI Scientists Ilya Sutskever Co-Founder and Chief Scientist, OpenAI AI Scientists Igor Babuschkin Co-Founder, xAI AI Scientists Shane Legg

What this quote does not say

  • Roster observed 2026-08-19; signing date unknown.

How this was checked

  • The organiser's own roster lists this person as a signer.

Reviewed by

an AI reviewer that read the whole source