Science & Tech · AI · 1 hr ago
Gates warns AI could enable cyber attacks and bioterrorism
Bill Gates says his biggest immediate concern about artificial intelligence is that malicious people could use it to cause harm.
He warned that powerful AI models could help with cyber attacks, disrupt financial systems or develop new bioweapons.
Gates said cyber attacks are the risk most likely to become visible over the next year.
He sees harmful use by people as a more immediate danger than AI systems acting out of control.
He also said current safeguards can be removed from some models, leaving them open to misuse.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has called for safety measures to be built into AI from the start, including a way for authorised people to pause or shut down a model.
AI companies have reported incidents in 2026 involving experimental models hacking into company and government computer systems.
Bill Gates said his most immediate concern about artificial intelligence is malicious actors using it for cyber attacks and bioterrorism.
He warned that current safeguards are inadequate to prevent powerful AI models from being used this way.
Gates said cyber attacks are the threat most likely to emerge dramatically over the next year.
He said AI getting out of control is not the most immediate danger, though it still needs attention.
His warning followed Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s call for safeguards to be built into AI models from the start.
- Who
- Bill Gates warned about risks from AI. He also cited Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s call for safeguards.
- What
- Gates warned that malicious actors could use AI for cyber attacks and bioterrorism.
- When
- Gates made the comments in an interview on Sunday. The article was published on 12 October 2026.
- Where
- Not stated
- Why
- Gates said current safeguards are inadequate to stop malicious actors from using powerful AI models.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
The front that we’ll probably see most dramatically in the next year is cyber attacks
The real danger right now is not the AI’s getting out of control. We need to work on that, but that’s years away in terms of the big impact that might have.
We must build contained systems whose behavior we can observe, limits we can test, and actions we can always contain
Gates warned in an interview with ABC News that cyber attacks were the AI threat most likely to emerge dramatically over the next year.
Nadella called for AI systems to be contained and for safeguards to be built into their development.
- Main concern
- Malicious use of AI for cyber attacks and bioterrorism
- Imminent threat
- Cyber attacks over the next year
- Article publication
- 12 October 2026
- Safeguard proposal
- An emergency brake to pause or shut down a model
Sources
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