By GB News (World News) | Created at 2026-09-28 02:05:40 | Updated at 2026-09-28 03:20:56
1 hour ago
Bill Gates has claimed that artificial intelligence has the power to wipe out one billion people in an extreme doomsday warning.
The Microsoft co-founder suggested the technology could be exploited to bring humanity close to extinction - and the only way to avert the catastrophe would be to follow his advice on greater regulation.
"AI is certainly powerful enough to drive events that cause a billion deaths," he told NBC.
"So even though it's pretty hard to get to 100 per cent [of humanity], there's never been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with ill intent using the latest AI tools," he added.
"I wish it was easier to distinguish good intent, like 'I want to design a new drug for a disease', versus negative intent, which is 'I want to design a tool of bioterrorism'," he added.
The tech billionaire has previously warned of existential "threats to humanity", having spent a decade raising the alarm about climate change.
Though last year he finally acknowledged last year that rising global temperatures would not wipe out the human race - though said the world's poorest nations would suffer the most severe consequences.
Mr Gates explained that without proper safeguards, terrorists or other malicious actors could harness AI to create weapons or biological threats with ease.
Bill Gates has claimed that artificial intelligence has the power to wipe out one billion people
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Earlier this month, AI firm Anthropic revealed it had caught the Iran-backed Houthi rebels trying to use its Claude chatbot to help develop advanced ballistic missiles.
Anthropic's chief executive Dario Amodei and OpenAI boss Sam Altman have both called for the pace of AI development to be slowed.
Donald Trump, however, has resisted any kind of regulation to what he calls "super intelligence", warning that restrictions could see America fall behind China in the field.
Mr Gates has now hit back at the President, maintaining that sensible regulation would not undermine the competitiveness of the US.
Donald Trump has shut down demands for regulating AI
"You'll hear from the industry: 'It's a very doable thing.' It would not slow them down dramatically," he insisted.
Critics of the AI slowdown have drawn parallels between current fears and the "Y2K" doomsday panic.
AI accelerationist Guillaume Verdon dismissed extinction concerns in an interview with the New York Post last week.
"If you ask any of these doomers how it's supposed to kill us all, they can never flesh out all the details," he said.
"I'm a mathematician. Show me the math."
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has rejected the doom-laden narrative surrounding AI
Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has also rejected the doom-laden narrative surrounding AI.
His company has launched a campaign aimed at casting the technology in a positive light and showcasing its potential benefits.
Speaking to GB News last night, tech policy expert James Czerniawski said Mr Gates was "just the latest in a big crowd of people trying to go and drum up a lot of hysteria around AI and the risks that it poses to people".
Like Mr Trump, he said "every Western country could sign an agreement saying we all promise we're not going to develop too much AI, then China and North Korea and all these other places would be beavering away at AI in underground bunkers before you could say 'destruction of humanity'".
