Bill Gates, co‑founder of Microsoft, warned in the Gates Foundation’s annual report that decisions made over the next 12–18 months will be decisive in determining who benefits most from advances in artificial intelligence (AI). Gates argued that if steered correctly, AI could significantly expand access to tools, opportunities and knowledge that have so far been out of reach for many.
In the report Gates wrote: “The next 12–18 months of decisions — about how AI is built, how it's financed, and how it's deployed — will determine whether this technology mainly benefits those who already get the most, or whether it reaches those who have the least.” He added: “AI can be a great equalizer—or it can further widen divides. This is not a prediction about a distant future. This is a decision to be made now.”
To that end, the Gates Foundation said it will spend at least $1 billion over the next two years to improve broader access to AI. The funding will support development of AI‑based tools for use in education, health care and agriculture.
A key focus of the program will be increasing linguistic diversity: the foundation plans to back the creation of large datasets that include more non‑English sources, helping developers who work on AI systems in other languages.
Gates’s warning follows earlier calls in August for tech companies and regulators to take seriously the potential risks AI poses to humanity. Similar concerns have recently been voiced by Sam Altman and Dario Amodei.
The $1 billion AI initiative is only a portion of the Gates Foundation’s long‑term plans. The foundation intends to spend a total of $200 billion on philanthropic activities by 2045 before winding down operations; the foundation says this would double its previous spending pace and would represent about 99 percent of Bill Gates’s remaining wealth.
Gates emphasized that the present moment is not only about technological progress but also about who will reap the rewards. The foundation aims to address access gaps by funding AI tools in education, health and agriculture and by supporting datasets that reflect a wider range of languages.
This article does not constitute investment advice or an investment recommendation.
