Bill Gates warns AI could enable devastating biological and cyberattacks

Wednesday 30 September 2026 - 16:47

By: Azzat Manal

Bill Gates warns AI could enable devastating biological and cyberattacks

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has renewed his warnings about the potential misuse of artificial intelligence, arguing that increasingly capable AI systems could give malicious individuals access to capabilities that were previously available mainly to governments and highly specialized organizations.

Speaking on The Ezra Klein Show in an episode published this week, Gates said he believed AI had crossed important thresholds in both cybersecurity and biological research earlier this year. He argued that the technology could potentially be used to facilitate highly damaging cyberattacks or assist attempts to develop dangerous biological agents.

Gates said the cybersecurity risk was already visible in the ability of advanced AI models to identify vulnerabilities in software and computer systems. He pointed to cases in which AI systems have found security flaws in code that had been reviewed by humans for many years, arguing that the technology could lower the expertise required to conduct sophisticated attacks.

He also raised concerns about the biological implications of increasingly capable AI. In his view, knowledge and capabilities that once required the resources of states could become more accessible to smaller groups as AI systems improve their ability to assist with scientific and technical tasks. Gates' comments reflect a broader debate within the technology industry over how advanced AI should be tested and controlled as its capabilities expand.

The Microsoft co-founder has argued that voluntary industry measures alone are insufficient to address these risks. He has called for governments and law-enforcement agencies to participate in establishing safeguards and monitoring mechanisms, saying that certain protections should be mandatory rather than left entirely to individual companies.

Gates has also questioned whether the public and policymakers fully appreciate the speed at which AI capabilities are developing. He said that discussions about AI often focus on competition and economic opportunities while giving less attention to scenarios in which the technology could be deliberately misused.

His latest comments come amid a wider debate among AI companies and researchers about the need for stronger safety measures. Anthropic, for example, has published assessments of cybersecurity incidents involving its models and has developed additional safeguards intended to prevent models from being used for dangerous cyber activities.

Anthropic has also established a framework for evaluating risks associated with increasingly capable models, including potential threats related to chemical and biological weapons. Its responsible scaling policy has been updated during 2026 as the company has revised its assessment of emerging risks and the safeguards needed to address them.

Gates' concerns extend beyond the specific risks discussed in his latest interview. In a separate appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, he said AI could potentially contribute to events resulting in extremely high numbers of deaths and argued that governments should establish safeguards before such capabilities are misused.

The debate is taking place as AI companies continue to develop models with stronger coding, scientific research and autonomous task capabilities. Supporters of rapid development emphasize the potential benefits of these systems, while researchers and technology leaders have increasingly discussed the need for testing, monitoring and controls capable of keeping pace with their capabilities.

Gates' intervention therefore adds to a growing international discussion over how advanced AI should be governed. The central challenge for policymakers is how to preserve the benefits of increasingly powerful systems while reducing the possibility that they could be deliberately or accidentally used to cause large-scale harm.