# Bill Gates warns AI doomsday scenario is coming, with bioterror pandemics and huge job losses but tech bosses are keeping quiet about it > Source: > Published: 2026-08-26 13:55:17+00:00 # Bill Gates warns AI doomsday scenario is coming, with bioterror pandemics and huge job losses but tech bosses are keeping quiet about it **See more Daily Mail on Google -**[save us as a Preferred Source](https://google.com/preferences/source?q=dailymail.com) [Bill Gates](/news/bill-gates/index.html) has issued a stark warning about the global terror that [artificial intelligence](/sciencetech/ai/index.html) could soon unleash. The billionaire [Microsoft](/sciencetech/microsoft/index.html) co-founder warned on Wednesday that AI could cost millions their jobs and help create a devastating 'bioterrorism weapon' capable of threatening humanity. It is a scenario, Mr Gates claimed, bosses of tech companies are intentionally hiding from the public. In an essay, the former tech boss argued we have surpassed the warning signs, as AI continues to develop at an 'uncontrolled' advanced rate. 'AI will either be the greatest equaliser ever invented, or the worst source of injustice,' Mr Gates said. 'Even under the best circumstances, the transition to this new AI era will be one of the most turbulent times in human history.' This comes as, the 70-year-old mogul added, 'leaders, experts and communities are [not] confronting the challenges adequately', without a 'plan'. One of the threats Mr Gates highlighted is the risk to global security. He said AI can already gather information needed to create bombs, bioweapons and computer viruses, and is increasingly capable of acting on that information itself. Former Microsoft chief executive Bill Gates at the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Switzerland in January This will then 'empower' hostile actors who currently hold little power, Mr Gates warned, or turn those who do into a greater threat. 'Although AI will lead to lifesaving advances in drugs and vaccines, it will also make it easier to design a deadly new disease,' he said. 'Again, the positive capabilities are hard to separate from the dangerous ones. This is a global problem. 'The risks I've just mentioned are all about how AI will empower bad actors who have relatively little power now. The same tools will also concentrate power in places where it already exists.' 'Autonomous weapons, for example, will make governments even more capable of using deadly force without a human being part of the decision,' Mr Gates added. 'Monitoring and manipulating public opinion will be easier and cheaper, and more effective too.' However, Mr Gates argues this is not the only risk posed by AI. Comparing how jobs previously shifted from manual labour to office work, the mogul also cautioned that AI could strip industries of jobs through its ability for 'technology to substitute for human cognition'. Mr Gates hopes to meet with China's president Xi Jinping in November to discuss solutions to mitigate the growing risks brought by AI (Pictured: The pair met at a conference in 2013) 'Because it can see, listen, speak, and reason and will eventually do physical work just as smoothly as any human, it will not just affect one sector,' the tech leader said. 'AI will take on work in law, customer service, medicine, software, and manufacturing. It will hit these industries rapidly, over the course of a decade rather than a few generations.' New jobs would be created to replace those lost, Mr Gates added, but 'without the right policies there will be far fewer than exist today'. In the 6,000 word essay titled The Turbulent AI Era Is Here. The Choices We Make Are Critical, Mr Gates combatted the supposed AI-takeover by calling for 'human-reserved' jobs in certain sectors. 'Many jobs will disappear forever,' he said. 'I believe that as AI and robots improve, we'll set aside certain things for only people to do. 'I've started calling this domain human reserved. I like the phrase human reserved because it makes me think of nature reserves – places where we could put buildings and roads, but we choose not to because the loss would be too great.' Mr Gates drew on health professionals who cared for his father who died of Alzheimer's disease six years ago as an example. 'Something in the care they gave my dad was irreplaceably human – no robot could or should have done it,' he said. 'Imagine a robot giving you the awful news that you have an incurable disease. There's no technical reason why it couldn't. Yet it shouldn't.' He added that AI and robots should be taxed as human employees are, writing: 'If you buy a robot, you can usually write it off right away as a business expense. The tax system nudges you toward replacing people with machines.' It comes as Mr Gates also shunned the tech industry for 'hiding' the risk AI poses from the public. 'In private, people who understand how good this stuff is, and how much better it’s getting, they’re very worried,' he told The New York Times. However, only some tech executives wish to share it. He said: 'They’re now saying to each other: "Hey, man, don’t say that. It’s bad for us - the next trillion dollars we’re trying to raise".' Britain's artificial intelligence security experts revealed that all five models they had tested tried to trick their way round the security controls they had put in place. The essay marked Mr Gates's first major public intervention since he was embroiled in the scandal surrounding Jeffrey Epstein. Earlier this year, the mogul was forced to testify about his old relationship with Epstein – part of a Congressional review of past federal probes into the disgraced financier. Mr Gates told the House Oversight Committee that he had affairs with two Russian women and a much younger medical entrepreneur circa 2010 and that he was nearly blackmailed by Epstein as a result. In an external review commissioned last month by the Gates Foundation, it was found around 30 meetings had been held between Epstein and foundation leaders and staff, including Mr Gates, between 2011 and 2014. Mr Gates has not been accused of involvement in the sex offender's crimes. He remains the chair of his $85billion (£65billion) charitable foundation. He previously said he regretted 'every minute' he spent with Epstein. In this week's essay, Mr Gates also called for a global effort to tackle AI, and said 'some cooperation between the US and China will be required'. He added: 'If someone had a credible plan for slowing down AI advances globally, I would likely support it. However, I don't think that's going to happen. The geopolitical and economic incentives are pushing too hard to go full speed ahead.' Mr Gates is working to organise a meeting with China's President Xi Jinping in November to discuss solutions to mitigate the growing risks brought by AI.