Bill Gates says artificial intelligence is powerful enough to “drive events” that could cause a billion deaths, according to excerpts released Friday from an interview set to air Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press. The comments come less than two weeks after the Gates Foundation announced a $1 billion pledge to expand access to AI around the world.
In the excerpt, Gates tells NBC’s Kristen Welker: “AI is certainly powerful enough to drive events that, you know, cause a billion deaths. Even though it’s pretty hard to get to 100%, there’s never been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with ill intent using the latest AI tools.”
The remark stands alongside a string of public statements Gates has made this year describing AI’s potential benefits. In an August memo, he called the technology more consequential than almost any other in history and said it had the potential to be “a force for good and leave everyone better off.”
A $1 billion commitment
Earlier this month, the Gates Foundation pledged at least $1 billion over two years to expand AI applications in health, education, agriculture and language data. In writing about the pledge, Gates said: “We can harness AI for good. But it won’t happen by accident. It requires a deliberate, specific commitment from government leaders and the companies developing the technology: to measure success not only by what AI can do for the most profitable users but by what it can do for the people who stand the most to gain.”
The pledge followed earlier partnerships this year between the Gates Foundation and two major AI developers: a $50 million joint commitment with OpenAI and a $200 million, four-year partnership with Anthropic. Both were aimed at deploying AI tools in clinics, classrooms and agricultural programs.
The excerpt released by NBC does not include any additional context Gates may offer during the full interview about safeguards or mitigating factors tied to his warning. The full interview airs Sunday on Meet the Press.
President Trump has previously dismissed warnings about advanced AI as part of an effort to push the United States toward stricter regulation of the technology while other countries, including China, continue developing it without similar constraints.
