AI Could Lead to a Pandemic Worse Than COVID-19 — Bill Gates

Artificial intelligence could lead to a pandemic far more dangerous than COVID-19, said Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, speaking on November 4 at the Future of AI Summit organized by the Financial Times.

According to Gates, the capabilities of modern AI models are such that “the potential for both good and harm cannot be overstated.” He sees the greatest immediate danger in the possibility that malicious actors will use AI to create biological weapons or launch cyberattacks on digital infrastructure. The risk is higher because built-in protective mechanisms and monitoring systems can be removed from some publicly available open-source models. The scale of damage from a biological incident involving AI could turn out to be “significantly worse” than the coronavirus pandemic, which is linked to about 15 million deaths in 2020–2021, Gates emphasized.

Gates believes that self-regulation within the AI industry will not work. “As soon as several companies get involved, the only way to solve the problem is to take it to the government level,” the billionaire said. However, in his view, international efforts to regulate AI are being hampered by the White House’s inaction.

“There’s not much point in taking action if the U.S. isn’t involved. So, in a way, we’ve reached an impasse… The only question is, how many more bad things have to happen before they change their position?” Gates said.

Gates called on the White House administration to consider a unified standard for internal safeguards and monitoring of AI models. He also proposed that the U.S. lead global efforts to address cyber vulnerabilities and establish large-scale monitoring of air, wastewater, and blood to detect potential AI-spread infections early.

Gates, who was granted access to ChatGPT by OpenAI prior to its public release in 2022, believes it is likely that OpenAI and Anthropic will release new models this year and will also unveil “two major releases” in 2027. The problem of models getting out of control could become a serious issue in the near future—perhaps even with regard to these future versions, he added.

The billionaire also called for accelerating efforts to harness the potential benefits of AI, such as drug development and reducing wait times at hospitals. “Nothing good happens on its own,” he said.

In September, at a meeting of the UN Security Council, the heads of Anthropic and OpenAI, Dario Amodei and Sam Altman, along with scientist Yoshua Bengio, warned of the risks AI poses to humanity and called for international cooperation in regulating the technology.

These calls run counter to the position of U.S. President Donald Trump. He rejected attempts to develop AI guidelines within the G20, calling them a “globalist scheme,” and has placed his faith in the technology sector’s self-regulation, the FT notes.

Gates himself said in September that artificial intelligence has enough power to trigger events that would lead to “a billion deaths,” and insisted on mandatory government involvement in developing protective measures. In August, in an essay, he warned about the threats AI poses to the labor market, the growing risk of cyberattacks, and the danger of dependence on AI companions; he also proposed imposing taxes on AI tokens and bots to fund a social safety net for workers whose jobs will be displaced by technology.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor