Bill Gates warns unchecked AI could cause a billion deaths

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has again voiced concern about the uncontrolled development of artificial intelligence (AI). In an interview with NBC News, he said AI is powerful enough to drive events that could cause a billion deaths.

Gates said the combination of malicious actors and the newest AI tools forms a weapon more powerful than anything seen before. He argued the situation calls for strict legislative regulation of AI, though he acknowledged such rules would bring additional costs for the industry without significantly slowing its operations. The full interview is set to air on Sunday.

Earlier warnings

In August, Gates published an essay laying out his concerns about artificial intelligence and proposed introducing new taxes on AI, given that it is replacing human workers.

The need to urgently slow the pace of AI development had previously also been raised by Sam Altman and Dario Amodei, the heads of leading AI developers OpenAI and Anthropic.

However, calls to slow AI development have been rejected by US President Donald Trump and by Chinese authorities.