Gates said AI could cause ‘a billion deaths’ if left unchecked
In her Wednesday column in The Guardian, opinion columnist Arwa Mahdawi challenged the credibility of Bill Gates’ recent warning that artificial intelligence could cause “a billion deaths” if left unchecked, citing the Microsoft co-founder’s history of meetings with Jeffrey Epstein.
Gates made the AI warning in an interview with NBC that aired Sunday, Mahdawi reported. In the interview, Gates said AI could cause “a billion deaths” if left unchecked, according to Mahdawi.
The column frames Gates’ return to public advocacy for AI oversight as a “rehabilitation tour” following earlier disclosures about his ties to Epstein, the financier who pleaded guilty in 2008 to charges including solicitation of prostitution from a minor.
Mahdawi reported that Gates met Epstein 30 times, with the meetings continuing after that guilty plea. Gates was introduced to Epstein in 2011, three years after the plea, according to the column.
Gates has not been accused of involvement in Epstein’s crimes, Mahdawi acknowledged. He has said he recalled “being aware that Epstein had faced prior legal issues” but did not understand the extent of them.
Mahdawi argued the explanation strains belief, given Gates’ reported preoccupation with his public image. “Two minutes of Googling (or Binging) could have made it clear the man was bad news,” she wrote. She cited reporting in the Wall Street Journal that Gates’ team uses a custom-size mannequin to test his outfits, with the goal of depicting “someone calm and approachable, like Mister Rogers.”
Gates has offered another defense, Mahdawi wrote. He has said Epstein “knew a lot of very rich people and [claimed he] could get them to give money to global health.” Gates — described by Mahdawi as the 17th-richest person in the world — “didn’t know any wealthy people he could hit up for donations himself,” she wrote, and “had to lean on a dodgy financier whose funds were obtained in mysterious ways.”
“I’m not accusing Gates of anything nefarious,” Mahdawi wrote. “But, if we are to take his Epstein excuses at face value, I’m accusing him of being a fool. If we can’t trust his judgment about a man like Epstein, I’m not sure we should trust his proclamations about the future of humanity.”
Mahdawi also redirected Gates’ AI warning toward his former company’s role. “I’m sick of hearing about the hypothetical dangers of AI when the technology is being used to kill people today,” she wrote, asking what Gates thinks of “the company’s role in the AI-enabled destruction of Gaza.”
Gates co-founded Microsoft and is no longer directly involved in its operations, Mahdawi noted. Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist.