Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has warned that the world's transition to artificial intelligence could become one of the most turbulent periods in history, with the technology carrying the risk of widening inequality.

Gates called for greater preparation for AI's social, political and economic impact, and said he would support credible efforts to slow AI development globally. His comments come as governments step up efforts to govern the technology: the European Union's AI Act, the first comprehensive law of its kind, entered into force in August 2024 with obligations phasing in over the following years, and the international AI Safety Summit process began at Bletchley Park in the United Kingdom in November 2023. The remarks were reported by Economic Times Markets on 27 August 2026.

The risks at the heart of the warning

Gates's assessment spans several interlinked concerns about how AI will reshape work and society. The coverage frames the risks around these themes:

• Which jobs will AI affect the most? Concerns over how far and how quickly AI will reshape labor markets.
• Will robots take away blue-collar jobs? Questions about whether automation will extend from cognitive and white-collar work into manual labor.
• AI will empower people to do more harm. Gates's caution that the technology amplifies the potential for misuse.
• Will AI replace human relationships? Uncertainty about AI's effect on human interaction and connection.

Taken together, the themes cover labor-market disruption, the potential misuse of AI, and the technology's broader social consequences. The jobs question has moved to the center of the policy debate: an International Monetary Fund analysis published in 2024 estimated that AI could affect almost 40% of jobs worldwide and around 60% of positions in advanced economies, and warned that without mitigation the technology is likely to worsen inequality within and between countries.

Who is Bill Gates

Gates co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975 and led the company as it became one of the world's largest software makers before stepping down as CEO in 2000. He now co-chairs the Gates Foundation, one of the world's largest charitable foundations, and writes regularly about technology, health and development on his blog, Gates Notes. Microsoft has itself become one of the biggest backers of the current AI boom, committing a reported $13 billion to OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT, whose public launch in late 2022 helped ignite global investment in generative AI.

He has positioned himself as both an optimist about AI's potential and a realist about its dangers. In his 2023 essay "The Age of AI Has Begun," published on Gates Notes, he described the development of AI as being as fundamental as the creation of the microprocessor, the personal computer, the internet and the mobile phone, while arguing that the technology could help reduce some of the world's worst inequities if steered wisely. In a November 2023 podcast interview, he suggested that AI could eventually make a three-day work week possible.

His latest warning adds to a growing global debate over how governments, companies and societies should manage the risks of AI — from labor-market disruption to misuse of the technology — even as investment in AI systems and infrastructure accelerates worldwide. The concern is shared across the industry: in 2023, hundreds of AI executives and researchers, including leaders of major AI developers, signed a public statement saying that mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside pandemics and nuclear war.