Bill Gates Warns AI Misuse Could Cause a Billion-Death Event and Calls for Stronger Safeguards

Bill Gates has escalated his warnings about artificial intelligence, saying malicious use of increasingly powerful systems could plausibly cause a catastrophe involving up to a billion deaths and arguing that safeguards can no longer be left to voluntary industry action. The Microsoft co-founder’s latest comments build on a broader public push for governments, researchers and civil society to treat AI risk as an urgent policy problem, not only a technical issue.