Bill Gates published an essay, accompanied by an interview with MIT Technology Review, arguing that AI has already passed the points at which safeguards should have been in place for biological and cyber misuse, psychological dependence, job losses and loss of control. He proposes taxing AI usage and robots and reserving some jobs for humans, and wants models capable of designing new molecules to be monitored, including through an agreement with China. He states the essay is the first of several and offers no worked-out policy solution.

• bioterrorism risk ~50x natural pandemic
• robots could hit ~30% of jobs
• turmoil period of 10-20 years
• token tax at 50% of revenue

• technologyreview.com2026-08-26