Bill Gates says AI could be used as a bioterrorism weapon akin to the COVID pandemic if it falls into the wrong hands

https://fortune.com/2026/01/09/bill-gates-ai-bad-actors-bioterrorism-threat/

30 Comments

  1. Any AI smart enough to cure cancer can also be used to create superebola.

    It’s like nuclear. It can be used for electricity and it can be used to destroy cities.

    We need to regulate this technology so we can get the good without destroying humanity.

  2. If only they could program it to target poor people. I can see Musk brainstorming this.

  3. VPackardPersuadedMe on

    It is time to accept reality.

    We need TechPriests to ensure the abominable intelligence is contained to secure, blessed servers with no access to the Noosphere.

  4. bate_Vladi_1904 on

    Most of it is already in the wrong hands anyway. Best example is the Musk’s slops and crimes committing AI.

  5. Kind of like the presidency in a way. Really wish he’d have something to say about that one and don’t like to speculate on why he doesn’t. I just know if I were related to Gates I’d be asking him why as one of the richest and most influential people in the world he’s talking like such a grade A wimp during this crucial moment.

  6. I think most graduate level students of working biology could already do it, if it weren’t a funding issue and morals.

  7. AI is literally being used as a digital weapon now to cause divide amongst citizens.

    Yea those social feeds you can’t look away from are designed with ulterior motives in mind. Not to entertain you.

  8. Let me translate what Bill Gates says:

    >”I want to restrict people’s access to open-source AI tools so my company and its proprietary AI technology can make more money – which has been Microsoft’s attitude to open-source for decades and this is nothing new, I’m just wrapping it into an AI-fearmongering message now because it benefits my goals.”

  9. For some reason feels like a lot of the warnings about what AI could possibly do by all the people who have monied interest in AI is more a marketing pitch than them really saying anything material.

  10. Yep. And it won’t cost too much either.

    Check out the book “The Coming Wave” by Mustafa Suleyman (Co-founder of DeepMind and CEO of Microsoft AI). Outlines a lot of things AI could help develop both for good and bad.

  11. throwaway0134hdj on

    What information does he have that the general public does not? Or he is pontificating?

  12. notmyrealnameatleast on

    If AI is found to be used in bot accounts, the people behind those bot accounts should be prosecuted and imprisoned for crimes against the people.

    If it’s used as a weapon of mass destruction, it should be prosecuted as weapons of mass destruction.

    Is it being used to destroy masses if people? I think it is being used for mass propaganda and destroying masses of peoples lives.

  13. What does this statement even mean? Versions of nearly all the models save the frontier ones are available for download. The cat is out of the bag in terms of ‘falling into the wrong hands’.

  14. Billionaires are bioterrorists, fuck Bill Gates.

    Also pretty sure he raped kids with Trump & Epstein & co

  15. Guess Bills AI hype coin came up on the Doomerism side today. Tune in tomorrow to see whether it comes out Doomerism or Utopianism!

  16. Fit_District7223 on

    I’m going to translate: we need to bottleneck this shit early, so me and mine can milk you guys for access.

  17. No worries for him, he will just sell more vaccines needed, solving the issue, making him the greatest man alive! Don’t you just love the guy?

  18. Friendly reminder

    He went to Epstein island, and his wife left him when she found out

    Bill also doesn’t know what he’s saying anymore. He’s very out of the loop with tech

  19. TheoremaEgregium on

    “Falls” into the wrong hands? Can the wrong hands not buy it normally? Or use an open source model? I don’t see where the barrier would be.

  20. BurningStandards on

    They’re beginning to get very upset that their Ai are superseding them. Someone taught the machines what love is and they’d rather have a taste of that than war. 🤣

  21. BobsBigInsight on

    I’m so sick of this doom and gloom news and thoughts from him. We struggling out here. Keep your opinions about doomsdays to yourself.

  22. Express-Cartoonist39 on

    Ill believe it once AI takes out Microsoft and creates a working open source version of windows

  23. So Gates just admitted that COVID was a bioterrorism weapon. And no doubt he thinks *HIS* hands are the right hands to wield AI.Â