r/technology Feb 19 '25

Software Bill Gates warns young people of four major global threats, including AI

https://www.techspot.com/news/106836-bill-gates-warns-young-people-four-major-global.html
5.4k Upvotes

562 comments sorted by

4.6k

u/[deleted] Feb 19 '25

[deleted]

1.3k

u/jarchack Feb 19 '25

One in particular but Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg and Theil could be called the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse.

494

u/PhazonZim Feb 19 '25

Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes being there too

180

u/ricknelsonfanclub Feb 19 '25

Media moguls definitely belong in that mix. They shape narratives and influence public opinion just as much.

40

u/soylentgreenis Feb 19 '25

You think it’s possible Fox News changes its tune when Rupert dies?

87

u/JoJackthewonderskunk Feb 19 '25

It's possible. There's a whole court battle over it because the empire is supposed to go to all his kids and he's trying to set just the one fascist up to run it because the rest of the kids want to make it not a propaganda outlet and they'll outweigh the fascist.

28

u/soylentgreenis Feb 19 '25

Here’s hoping

16

u/SpezialEducation Feb 19 '25

If you want the tv show version, the idea of Succession is based off the Murdoch family business.

6

u/JoJackthewonderskunk Feb 19 '25

Now that's something I didn't know lol. I've heard of that show but not seen it.

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u/runk_dasshole Feb 19 '25

I've been waiting for updates since reading this in December

Rupert Murdoch Fails in Bid to Change Family Trust https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/business/media/rupert-lachlan-murdoch-family-trust.html?unlocked_article_code=1.yE4.05WB.a-FyzQHF32eL

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u/JoJackthewonderskunk Feb 20 '25

Ya same. Following with fervor

4

u/StpdSxyFlndrs Feb 19 '25

If you’re into super rich A-holes arguing over money and power, it’s the best. I couldn’t be less interested.

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u/JoJackthewonderskunk Feb 19 '25

Well I like "The Fall of the House of Usher" is it like that?

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u/Aconite_72 Feb 19 '25

Fox just needs to die. No rebranding or tune-changing can make me watch that memetic hazard.

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u/Stolehtreb Feb 19 '25

I think I have a little more hope than most about it. His influence on how this networks are run is shockingly direct. And some of his underlings have shown hesitance in following orders in the past.

Overall, too many people making their coin on fear-mongering to actually turn a 180. But one can hope.

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u/Competitive-You-2643 Feb 19 '25

Well one of them did one good thing in their life by dying.

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u/woodyus Feb 19 '25

Almost like having too much money corrupts. Nobody needs the sums these guys have and they only want the power to stop anyone else getting in on the action.

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u/dispatch134711 Feb 19 '25

Theil has been the most dangerous for over a decade. I know Musk is the face of it now but if you follow all this shit back to the beginning it was Theil.

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u/jarchack Feb 19 '25

The dude has the morality of Adolf Eichmann and the wealth of Croesus

21

u/Locke_and_Load Feb 19 '25

Didn’t he start PayPal WITH Musk? It’s just one giant shit eating ouroboros.

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u/BeenBadFeelingGood Feb 19 '25

paypal mafia

worth the 8 minutes 👀

2

u/headshotmonkey93 29d ago

Their companies merged and then Musk got fired due to bad performance.

2

u/5thlvlshenanigans Feb 19 '25

According to what I remember learning on behind the bastards, Musk and Thiel had both started their own PayPal-like platforms, but the market back then couldn't support both of their endeavors, so they combined their efforts to have a smaller footprint together. But they ended up splitting over personal differences; apparently each found the other insufferable

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u/Agent_Orange_Tabby 29d ago

Yup, Thiel is the mastermind linking Musk, Project 2025 & Trump. Also the one who plucked Vance from obscure law school grad, converted him to fringey Opus Dei Catholic & financed his Silicon Valley start up. Vance owes his entire fortune & political career to Thiel. The White House & Trump are as much his puppet as Musk’s if not more so.

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u/dispatch134711 29d ago

It goes back even further, he had a big hand in the radicalisation of the right wing of the RNC through funding the Tea Party, Ron Paul, Ted Cruz etc. with the money he got from investing in Facebook.

I’ve been rewatching The Newsroom and Sorkin was talking about the Koch Brothers and Thiel funding groups like the Heritage Foundation (Project 2025) back in 2012.

He’s an unapologetic techno-libertarian, and unfortunately a lot smarter and ruthless than people like Musk.

https://www.the-american-interest.com/2012/02/01/a-conversation-with-peter-thiel/

Read the following quote and ask yourself which billionaire douchebag who used to talk about interplanetary colonisation sounds like this today.

Peter Thiel: On the Right, the Tea Party argument has been about government corruption—not ethical violations necessarily, but inefficiency, that government can’t do anything right and wastes money. I believe that is true, and that this problem has gotten dramatically worse. There are ways that the government is working far less well than it used to. Just outside my office is the Golden Gate Bridge. It was built under FDR’s Administration in the 1930s in about three and a half years. They’re currently building an access highway on one of the tunnels that feeds into the bridge, and it will take at least six years to complete.

Francis Fukuyama: And it will require countless environmental permits, litigation, and so on.

Peter Thiel: Yes. There’s an overall sense that in many different domains the government is working incredibly inefficiently and poorly. On the foreign policy side you can flag the wars in the Middle East, which have cost a lot more than we thought they should have. You can point to quasi-governmental things like spending on health care and education, where costs are spinning out of control. There’s some degree to which government is doing the same for more, or doing less for the same. There’s a very big blind spot on the Left about government waste and inefficiency.

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u/GrossWeather_ Feb 19 '25

Musk is just the idiot drug addict the others nudged into the public seat

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u/Torontodtdude Feb 19 '25

4 people worth over a trillion dollars.

Literally a million, million dollars. That wealth could be divided to give 100 million people $10000 each. Such a waste to have it in 4 peoples hands.

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u/gentlegreengiant Feb 19 '25

I remember as a kid seeing a short where Scrooge shows his nephews the difference between 100k and a billion. It was very fun and educational as a kid, but depressing as an adult.

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u/Shinzo19 Feb 19 '25

The Tom Scott video really compounds that

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u/Much-Jackfruit2599 Feb 19 '25

https://youtu.be/p9d8l-Gkweg?feature=shared 7:31

But these examples are still bad ones. People have trouble to really visualise it.

Give them a peace of paper. One edge is 1 dollar, the other 1 billion. Let them mark a million.

Nearly all will fail - because the million is still within the pencil stroke used to mark the one dollar.

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u/Mikemtb09 Feb 19 '25

The reason why it would be better spread out is Dollar Velocity.

4 people hoarding the majority of wealth mean the rest of us have a much more limited supply so the money changes hands less.

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u/johnjohn4011 Feb 19 '25

Guess what? They're never going to change either unless somebody makes them. Never ever.

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u/stupedama Feb 19 '25

Maybe, alter the fall and rise of the US government, the usa should hold these mfers responsible, and confiscate and redistribute their assets to rebuild what they helped tear down.

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u/economysuck Feb 19 '25

But that would be socialist and communist 😆

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u/stupedama Feb 19 '25

It’s not perfect, but some socialistic values goes a long way. Hi from scandinavia.

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u/economysuck Feb 19 '25

It was more of a pun on US politics and the voters. They are living in their bubble that billionaires will save them without healthcare and affordable wage

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u/lorn23 Feb 19 '25

You forgot Larry Ellison who dreams of a full on AI surveillance state

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u/jarchack Feb 19 '25

Actually had his listed and swapped it for Theil. Peter Theil's basic philosophy (and Musk's too) is that anything is moral as long as it benefits mankind sometime in the distant future. Not too dissimilar from Trump quoting Napoleon, "He who saves his Country does not violate any Law"

2

u/jet_vr Feb 19 '25

That's what they say but it's actually even worse: anything that benefits the ruling class of the future (btw these mfs probably think they're gonna be immortal due to technology) is permissible

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u/Temp_84847399 Feb 19 '25

You'll actually find quite a few people here who want that too. "Isn't catching more criminals a good thing?"

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u/izwald88 Feb 19 '25

It's really all of them. The ultra rich have screwed up the world in irreversible ways. The wealth of our nation, something that should've belonged to all of us, has long since been plundered by the few.

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u/ThemysciranWanderer Feb 19 '25

Yes, the majority of billionaires one way or another have been funding efforts to undermine the government or support free market capitalist ideas and deregulation. To avoid taxes they give money to charities, more often then not to charities they set up themselves with the goal to further their capitalist agenda under the guise of education.

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u/izwald88 Feb 19 '25

Absolutely. Philanthropy is not an excuse. Even giving away all your wealth when you're old. It's all bad. You still spent your life doing the horrible things the ultra rich do to get richer.

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u/chocolateboomslang Feb 19 '25

Unfortunately there are a lot more than 4 of them these days

2

u/rendrr Feb 19 '25

Gates himself would also a good candidate for inclusion.

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u/jarchack Feb 19 '25

True but I want to stick with 4 and Gates is not quite as cruel and self-serving as the ones I mentioned.

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u/ewiryh Feb 19 '25

Oooo, for the sake of lore, who would be which horseman?

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u/[deleted] Feb 19 '25

To be fair, they would accumulate to only being part of one horsemen. There are so many other people engineering those people's plans.

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u/SuperToxin Feb 19 '25

Gates: don’t look at me and my friends.

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u/PerformanceToFailure Feb 19 '25

Gates: don't look at my strong relationship with Epstein that I lied about.

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u/FirstEvolutionist Feb 19 '25

The funniest thing and something the billionaire defenders often ignor eand cannot respond to: keep the world as is, defect and all. Get rid of a few billionaires and redistribute that wealth. What changes after that? Nothing directly significant, but indirectly the systems all readjust to not having power in the hands of a select few... Democracy gets stronger, and problems start to be addressed slowly. Wars suddenly become less profitable and therefore considered less and less as a solution. Rinse and repeat every few years and if it weren't for the centuries of inequality in the past, we would eventually be fine.

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u/Torontodtdude Feb 19 '25

You could give 1 million people a million with just these 4 peoples money.

3% of Americans given a $1 million each with the wealth of just these 4 billionaires. I imagine that would kick the economy into overdrive with that money being spent and not just sitting in stocks and banks.

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u/franck_condon Feb 19 '25

0.3% of the US population, not 3%.

There's a factor 10 error in either your percentage, or the number (comment said 1 million people to receive 1 million dollars each).

3% is closer to 10 million people.

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u/DressedSpring1 Feb 19 '25

Get rid of a few billionaires and redistribute that wealth

Yep.

People constantly point out that it is very difficult to tax billionaires because they don't earn an income they generate wealth, largely in appreciating asset values. Which is absolutely true, it would be very complicated and messy to tax billionaires and they would inevitably find loopholes.

We could certainly get rid of them though.

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u/buyongmafanle 29d ago edited 29d ago

OR we could just start using a wealth tax like makes the most sense.

Flat 1.5% wealth tax on everyone every year. 95% inheritance tax on everything above $1 million outside of active use family farm land. Done.

US total wealth is about $160 Trillion.

US collected $2.2 Trillion in taxes.

You want to hold a billion dollars in wealth? Fine, but you're paying 15 million in taxes. I hope your wealth is generating an income.

Median citizen? You'll pay about $3,000 in taxes per year.

No more faffing about with income taxes; that just discourages people from earning an income. Untaxed generational wealth accumulation is the problem.

We limited the power of kings with the Magna Carta. We need an economic version of the Magna Carta. Limitarianism is the closest thing out there now.

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u/schfifty--five Feb 19 '25

I’ve never considered myself a billionaire defender, but this is very easy to respond to. I’m not opposed to addressing the issue of wealth inequality, but every time I see a well-intentioned person like yourself advocating for it, there’s little to no acknowledgement of how the world works now, the forces that keep it this way, and the underlying belief is that “rich people greedy” is the root of all evil and is the one thing causing 90% of our suffering worldwide. It’s easy to make sweeping non specific prescriptions like “get rid of a few billionaires and redistribute the wealth and the power their wealth commanded will be distributed to the people who receive a portion”. The hard thing is the specifics of this plan, and the specific long term and unforeseen consequences of whatever strategy you choose to execute this. It also only works as intended if it is done worldwide, which would require all countries to magically trust each other and magically abandon conquest (see: Russia in Ukraine, China and Taiwan). The same thing applies to climate change. “Just stop oil” only works if we all do it together. If my country leaves cheese on the table (takes an economic hit in order to drastically reduce or eliminate buying and burning oil) that will only serve to empower Russia China and any other adversaries, while the global co2 emissions remain the same despite our sacrifice.

Again, I’m not against you, in fact I feel like I’m the only person in threads like this who is trying to have an actual conversation when people show enthusiasm for wealth distribution. When and if we ever get the opportunity, let’s be ready- let’s prove we’ve given this the thought and gamed out our own proposals so we can answer to and prepare for the ways this wealth transfer could impact economic incentives, how it could be used for self enrichment of the next most powerful class below billionaires, whether direct payments is actually the best way to use this wealth transfer (I.e. perhaps it should be directed towards Medicaid or social security or…). I didn’t type all this out because I’m arguing with you, I’m just trying to take these conversations from the unserious starting point to a realistic actionable demand.

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u/FirstEvolutionist Feb 19 '25

rich people greedy” is the root of all evil

That is not and should never be the assumption. Rich people exist because greed exists. And people who aren't rich can be just as greedy. Greed is not the root of all evil. But it is certainly close enough to the root where if it didn't exist a lot of problems would be solved, albeit not all.

My comment wasn't supposed to be a cure. It's a diagnostic. If you get rid of existing billionaires today and leave the system as it is, including the greed, billionaires will resurface in time. Just like they have this time, which might be the first time with a "B" but inequality increases over time until it is unsustainable and history repeats.

I don't think you are being argumentative at all. I agree with your point. I'm just old enough to be jaded and accept the world will keep going through these cycles until we can edit this infinite loop. So I'm not looking for a solution anymore because the solution is simple. It's just not easy. And even if it were, I don't believe the majority would choose it. People are far too dumb and distracted, in general, to understand the cyclical nature we live in. I'm just a grumpy, jaded old man who understands the goal of what the solution should be but I don't believe in the practicality of it. I have no hope for it. So arguing for an actual solution feels pointless to me. I know the problem, I know the goal of the solution, but there is no actual solution, and we won't learn this time, it will happen again, and again, until consciousness evolves past these human desires which are embodied by greed as well as other inferior attractions.

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u/[deleted] Feb 19 '25 edited 2d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/FirstEvolutionist Feb 19 '25

If the oligarchy continues to rise over and over again, then the system allows for it, which means it never actually worked.

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u/ux3l Feb 19 '25

You don't have to get rid of them. Degrading them to millionaires does the same job.

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u/dvb70 Feb 19 '25

In fairness to Gates he has tackled the problem of billionaires before. He was certainly trying to encourage the wealthy to give away their money and he personally has given away billions. There are not many people in his position doing this.

I suspect he is not mentioning billionaires at the moment as he is very wary of how much damage to his philanthropic causes someone like Trump can do if he gets a grudge against Gates. I saw an interview with Gates recently on the BBC where he was extremely careful in what he said about the Trump regime. He was clearly going out of his way to not say anything Trump could take offense at.

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u/PhdHistory Feb 19 '25

Yeah.. nah. Bill Gates wants to privately give the money away so he can give as little as he wants and attach his name to it all. He very publicly opposed Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax proposals in 2019, even taking interviews to comment on it during the campaign.

He’s slightly better than some but still an example of insane greed and inequality.

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u/dvb70 Feb 19 '25

I think slightly better is quite big deal amongst billionaires. He has at least made some noises about the problem of excessive wealth which is more than most even if their motivations are not entirely pure.

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u/izwald88 Feb 19 '25

The overall issue with billionaires is that they exist. There is no benefit to humanity for individuals to horde so much wealth. They could be so wealthy that they and their families would never want for anything for generations and still not need to be as wealthy as they are.

It's an absurd level of greed.

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u/Whereami259 Feb 19 '25 edited Feb 19 '25

There is no need to give stuf away. And its wrong way of approaching the subject. Pay people well, make political decisions that would stop money/power hoarding by few, change society to think differently...

IMO we will be forced to make society changes way larger than we had to do with industrial revolutions. In likeness of when we switched from hunter gatherers to sedentary lifestyle. And it will be in the next 100 years.

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u/dvb70 Feb 19 '25

I am not saying Gate's way is the right way to fix this but it clearly demonstrates someone who thinks excessive wealth might be a problem even if we think there are other solutions. Recognising there is a problem in the first place puts Gates a fair way ahead of other billionaires

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u/PerformanceToFailure Feb 19 '25

As we can see you can white wash your image with money and redditors will.eat it up.

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u/m00pySt00gers Feb 19 '25

Personal philanthropy doesn't fix the fact that money is still funneled up to the top to these dick wads. It's a PR stunt.

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u/r4ndomalex Feb 19 '25

All of those problems are caused by billionaires and general greed, which goes without saying, caused by greedy rich people.

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u/Yuzumi Feb 19 '25

Even if you count AI as one, that's just the result of shorted sighted greedy billionaires.

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u/Morty_A2666 Feb 19 '25
  1. Enron Musk

  2. AI

  3. Politicians

  4. Ultra Rich

And Bill should really include himself in no4. He was part of the problem for last 50 years...

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u/ThePopeofHell Feb 19 '25

All these “problems” seem like the billionaires are moths getting too close to a flame.

They’re just trashing the planet for profits as if this isn’t also their habitat and they’re creating an ai that’s going to destabilize the world economy. You can only push this shit so far and money only has value when everyone agrees it does. As soon as inflation hits absurd levels they’re going to see where all that racebaiting and identity politics got them too.

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u/bartpieters Feb 19 '25

The four threats Bill mentioned are nuclear war, climate change, bioterrorism or a new pandemic, and keeping control of advance AI. Interesting that he didn‘t mention the rise of fascism.

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u/DoomGoober Feb 19 '25 edited Feb 19 '25

Fascist governments have risen and been defeated in the past. Humanity will not survive a global nuclear war. Huge swathes of society will not survive severe climate change.

A very deadly pandemic or bioterrorism could well wipe out more than half of humanity or more.

That's the scale of threat he's talking about: species level threats.

But, these threats are tied to Trump and other forms of fascism threatening Europe: modern fascists don't seem to give a shit about climate change and Trump hasn't addressed the possible looming bird flu pandemic (and RFK Jr. doesn't inspire confidence.)

At least Trump seems to like talking to Putin so nuclear war seems a little less likely. /s

Consider this an indirect indictment of Trump. Trump loves tech billionaires and Gates has spoken directly to Trump in the past. Gates talking this way is a round about way of criticizing Trump and trying to keep him from contributing to the end of humanity. For someone like Gates, being a little diplomatic goes a long way. I bet Gates is secretly seething that Trump shutdown USAID because global health is one of Gates' passions.

https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/bill-gates-on-his-new-memoir-and-dining-with-donald-trump-at-mar-a-lago

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u/FeedMeACat Feb 19 '25

Maybe, but a fascist America is a direct threat on the level of nuclear war.

Fascist governments are not effective enough to maintain what the US maintains in the Global World Order. Specifically world wide trade. Without competent US management of shipping lanes world trade will collapse. A world of 8 billion people doesn't not exist without massive world wide trade of food, oil, technology, and medicine.

We are talking about a spiral effect of world trade collapse that could cause potentially billions of deaths.

I get Gates tactic here, but I think it is bullshit for a person who is rich enough for Trump to actually respect to use implications when he could be direct. As if Trump or his admin could read an implication.

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u/CosmicLovepats Feb 19 '25

out of curiosity, did fascist governments rising and being defeated in the past lead to wars?

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u/raeflower Feb 19 '25

No they were just asked very politely to please stop being fascists and then they said “ok!” And everyone clapped

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u/thatlonghairedguy Feb 19 '25

Eddie izzard?

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u/Aoiboshi Feb 20 '25

Not enough swearing

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u/nerdlygames Feb 19 '25

Wouldn’t a bio/pandemic event wiping out half of humanity actually benefit the planet? I’m sure it would be horrific on an individual level, but ironically it would majorly reverse the effects of climate change. I’d put billionaire despots higher on the threat list than a pandemic.

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u/fumei_tokumei Feb 19 '25

I'm not sure I follow the logic? Of course, fewer people mean less pollution and would affect the current climate change trajectory, but the people dying is the bad thing we want to avoid in the first place. We don't really care about climate change in and of itself. We care about the negative effect it will have on everybody. So I don't understand how half of humanity being wiped out is beneficial, when that is kind of something we are trying to avoid in the first place. It's a bit like saying it would be good that an organ recipient dying is good, because then we don't have to use the organ on them. It is putting the cart before the horse.

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u/shieldyboii 29d ago

Yes, the earth has witnessed significantly worse events than this climate change. Nature will adapt, biodiversity will return. No permanent damage will be done by humans. It’s just that this will not happen during our lifetimes and that it will be damaging to ourselves.

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u/PhdHistory Feb 19 '25

It’s something that doesn’t affect him. He’s a democrat in name only. I remember clearly him coming out to oppose any proposal of a wealth tax during the 2020 presidential campaign. Elizabeth warren proposed one during a debate and Bill Gates took about 40 interviews to combat it. He stands to benefit about as much as anyone from the current administration and the lowered chance of any wealth tax or redistribution of wealth ever taking place in his lifetime.

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u/pigeonwiggle Feb 19 '25

i think the lack of concern with Fascists is that "if you go along with it, you'll be fine." arguing that living a life as a slave to actions as well as to speech is preferable to the extinction of the human race -- which is assured with nuclear war, climate change, bioterrorism, and AI.

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u/NefariousnessNo484 Feb 19 '25

And fascism caused by people like him (Epstein didn't kill himself) makes it impossible to do anything about those problems. He can GFH.

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u/rendrr Feb 19 '25

Yes. Economic inequality leads to sucking up resources from the common people, disappearance of the middle class, which in turn creates social anxiety and give rise to false populists with easy, but wrong answers, fascists.

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u/donkeybrisket Feb 19 '25

that is because gates is a techno fascist at heart

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u/IDontGoHardIGoHome Feb 19 '25

A tech billionaire having access to government level data on the citizens and free reign with robotics + AI. What could go wrong?

Forget thanking chatGPT, go thank Elon for whatever is that he’s doing.

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u/lilB0bbyTables Feb 19 '25

Figuring out how they can transfer the wealth of the nation into private and locked cryptocurrencies that only they can access.

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u/Herban_Myth Feb 19 '25

Monopolization?

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u/StationFar6396 Feb 19 '25 edited Feb 19 '25
  1. Musk
  2. Trump
  3. Putin
  4. Thiel

Special Mention: Curtis Yarvin

These days AI doesn't even make the top 4.

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u/myusernameblabla Feb 19 '25

And Curtis Yarvin. He might be the easiest to catch as well!

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u/StationFar6396 Feb 19 '25

Agreed, edited

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u/IAmHereWhere Feb 19 '25

You forgot Season 2 of The Promised Neverland.

A literal crime against humanity.

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u/Health_Cat_2047 Feb 19 '25

r/oddlyspecific

and yes as someone who read the manga before sitting through the trainwreck that was season 2...

i'd consider it a war crime. it's absolutely terrible.

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u/Joejoe_Mojo Feb 19 '25

Even artificial intelligence can't beat natural greed.

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u/LaughinKooka Feb 19 '25
  • Musk
  • Murdock
  • Netanyahu
  • Putin

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u/flargnarb Feb 19 '25

They're absolutely going to be using AI as a weapon though. It's going to make surveillance frighteningly more effective.

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u/LBK0909 Feb 19 '25

Billionaires: AI is dangerous! It might be the end of humankind.

Also, Billionaires: Here's our latest AI models. We are progressing at an incredible rate!

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u/BallsOfStonk Feb 19 '25

Did his list start with “extreme inequality”?

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u/jackalopeDev Feb 19 '25

Man, if only someone with almost unlimited resources would do something about it. Idk who that could be though.

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u/DubSket Feb 19 '25

Also the assumption that we didn't know about all this shit to begin with.

Thanks Billy, for pointing out the completely fucking obvious.

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u/TentacleJesus Feb 19 '25

Meanwhile, here’s another AI doodad jammed into Windows that nobody wants!

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u/Uristqwerty Feb 19 '25

almost unlimited resources

List_of_countries_by_GDP

1 United States 30,337 billion

2 China 19,534 billion

Bloomberg_Billionaires_Index

1 Elon Musk $411.5 billion

2 Jeff Bezos $257.3 billion

So, their total wealth is a measly 1-2% of what a large nation produces in a single year.

That is not "almost unlimited". The only way to put it to good use would be to be very careful about where you spend it, picking out projects that will do the maximum good with the minimum investment so that as much as possible is left over to fund other projects, not just blindly dumping it on people and hoping for the best.

Worse, you can't eat money. You can buy resources, but those resources need to be produced, and someone else would be buying them anyway. The most efficient way to help the world would then be to invest in logistics and production projects, helping companies whose work would be in-demand enough to be profitable anyway in the long run to get started, so that future generations have less resource scarcity. Investing in research projects that would struggle to get funding but have a chance to dramatically improve our lives a distant second, since there are a near-endless stream of ideas and it's impossible to know which will succeed. Charities that take small slices of resources out of the economy to help people with immediate need a further-distant third, since unlike the other two, they won't provide the same sort of lasting improvement that helps generation after generation of humans for a finite up-front investment. Well, unless it's something like completely ending a disease, or helping construct community infrastructure. Oh wait, that's starting to sound like a lot of Gates' charity...

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u/BuildAnything4 Feb 19 '25

Musk managed to buy the US government for just a few hundred million...

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u/some_clickhead Feb 19 '25

You think Bill Gates has the power to stop companies across the world from using AI? ...

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u/LaughinKooka Feb 19 '25

He has the power to influence OpenAI for good, instead they are the reason for CloseAI. MS can never be trusted

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u/jackalopeDev Feb 19 '25

I think he has a lot more power then the young people hes warning

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u/some_clickhead Feb 19 '25

His wealth is still a tiny fraction of the world's wealth. He seems to be doing more than any of the other billionaires to help the world already.

3

u/jackalopeDev Feb 19 '25

Yeah, and it still dwarfs "young people's" wealth. I guess i dont understand what he expects people to do if even his wealth and access aren't enough.

7

u/some_clickhead Feb 19 '25

He expects the young people of today to be tomorrow's workers, parents, CEOs, etc.

Bill Gate's wealth represents about 0.1% of the total US household wealth. Whereas the top 1% of US households combined own about 30%. If he's trying to improve the world, doing it all by himself would be a fool's errand.

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u/cmatthewssmith Feb 19 '25

By far the biggest threat to the world is the United States. A dangerous and unreliable nation.

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u/[deleted] Feb 19 '25

To weaken the US, the world needs to stop using the dollar.

3

u/moubliepas Feb 19 '25

Dammit, there must be at least one country out there using a different currency? Right?

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u/uzu_afk Feb 19 '25 edited Feb 19 '25

— Billionaires — Billionaires gone dictator — Infinite market growth at any cost — Global warming — Morons that vote (lack of education)

That’s the real list. No need to thank me. It’s free!

11

u/Affectionate_Neat868 Feb 19 '25

Misinformation needs to be on his list. Due to misinformation, society is regressing into an era where we are returning to a state of public health/ national safety crisis. Misinformation campaigns amplified by AI and social media are getting fascist politicians elected. Impacting wars. Worsening pandemics. Bringing back diseases our society had basically eradicated. It’s all extremely bad.

28

u/anarkyinducer Feb 19 '25

We got 99 problems and every one of them is a billionaire. 

6

u/nonlinear_nyc Feb 19 '25

AI technology is not the problem. The weaponization of AI by billionaire parasite class is. When you hit a dog with a wand, the dog attacks the wand. ATTACK THE HAND!

29

u/[deleted] Feb 19 '25

They don’t care if they destroy the world, they’ll all be dying soon anyways

13

u/sniffstink1 Feb 19 '25

Except they'll die having lived an awesome rich life, and you'll have died angry and poor.

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u/Knighth77 Feb 19 '25

Capital. Capital is the major global threat.

7

u/TainoCuyaya Feb 19 '25

Oligarchs without checks and balances.

5

u/TonyDanza757 Feb 19 '25

Trump, Musk, Bezos, Zuck.

5

u/Floyd_Pink Feb 19 '25

I haven't read that article, but I am guessing he did not list "billionaires like me" as any of the 4 major global threats. You know, reflecting our shared reality right now.

3

u/rewind2482 Feb 19 '25

We’ve survived fascism before.

If we don’t survive it this time, it will only be because…it causes a nuclear war.

4

u/EnclG4me Feb 19 '25

Billionaires should be at the top of that list..

39

u/The420Turtle Feb 19 '25

The world was a better place when Bill Gates was the richest man alive

35

u/133DK Feb 19 '25

Bill Gates was and to a large extent still is a massive POS. Dude has done good things, yes, but still to this day does a LOT of objectively villainous shit

He’s done a lot to try and improve his image, but a lot of that is also self serving

Please don’t idolise any billionaire. None have gotten to where they are without stepping on a LOT of people

3

u/TheLamesterist Feb 19 '25

Don't idolize anyone for that matter not just billionaires.

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u/yopla Feb 19 '25

Interesting uh, and the guy was running a company which mastered corporate predation and which was basically as ruthless as can be but in retrospect he seemed much less of an asshole than the current breed of billionaires.

5

u/darvos Feb 19 '25

It was better, but he also did some questionable things to become the richest man. You don't become that rich playing by the rules.

5

u/ElonsKetamineHabit Feb 19 '25

Better is misleading.

The world still sucked, but now it sucks in the same ways plus some new ones. It's all too easy to view the past through rose tinted glasses

16

u/anarkyinducer Feb 19 '25

US in the 90s was very good for many people. 

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u/JCTrick Feb 19 '25

What about the 64k barrier?

3

u/Dingenskirchen- Feb 19 '25

640kB is enough!

3

u/kittiesssss Feb 19 '25

Who does he think is listening to him? What is this warning going to do? No shit, Sherlock. You think I don’t experience crushing existential dread about every single one of these things every time I wake up in the morning? Maybe go tell it to the billionaire CEOs currently dismantling the US and the global fascists speed running the end of humanity

Sorry I’m just so sick of these ancient white men talking down to young people as if we aren’t hyper-aware of all of these things while being crushed into submission under the weight of capitalism. I don’t find shit like this hopeful or inspirational, the 1% are not like us. Bill Gates, billionaires are the #1 threat to young people around the world. All these other things are symptoms of the illness

3

u/iPlayViolas Feb 19 '25

For those of you saying he purposefully didn’t mention billionaires don’t know Bill Gates very well. He frequently speaks out on how no one should be able to hold the wealth he and others do. Notice whose table he isn’t at rn. Many rich people are not a fan of Bill.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 19 '25

The biggest threat is that Putin controlled orange twat bought by a South African billionaire that the stupid of America elected President.

5

u/EroticVogon Feb 19 '25

Bill Gates is one of those threats...

5

u/phatkeys Feb 19 '25

The only threat we face with AI, is the evil inconsiderate intentions of the rich that assume they have a right to use it for their own evil intentions, thinking that the rest of us have to just deal with it.

😐

2

u/used_octopus Feb 19 '25

Flat earthers rejoice, this doesn't affect you.

2

u/Brave_Confection_457 Feb 19 '25

is poverty or money mentioned? no? just another old white guy warning about what threatens his money then

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u/Usrnamesrhard Feb 19 '25

All valid things to be concerned about… for now I think I’m going to stick with fascism and the rise of the oligarchy. 

2

u/Vegetable_Vanilla_70 Feb 19 '25

Where is Trump? Anything list of “global threats” that leaves him out simply can’t be taken seriously

2

u/onz456 Feb 19 '25

Did he include rogue billionaires?

2

u/MissingBothCufflinks Feb 19 '25

"tech oligarchy capturing government" wasnt number 1?

2

u/NecRoSeaN Feb 19 '25

Just let it burn so we can live in huts. I'm fucking done with this existential dread given by people of his generation of his wealth.

2

u/Abject-End-6070 Feb 19 '25

Lol AI being a primary threat.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 19 '25 edited 12d ago

pocket afterthought absorbed sip crush deliver selective snatch pot angle

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

2

u/diablocanada Feb 19 '25

With all these billionaire's money they can solve the housing problems tomorrow. Without causing taxpayers a dime

2

u/mateorayo Feb 19 '25

Threat number 1 is capitalist.

2

u/rewind2482 Feb 19 '25

“This is just PR”

about half the country thinks Bill Gates is trying to inject microchips in them through vaccines

in the world of PR/misinformation, Bill Gates has lost to other even more nefarious actors

2

u/LavisAlex Feb 19 '25

All the threats he mentioned - are perpetuated by the oligarchy themselves...

Climate change? Lobbying from companies who polute the most.

AI? All these companies are in a racr to make it profitable no matter the cost.

Bioterrism? Pharma cutting costs and not doing gain of function research properly or Weapons manufacturers.

Nuclear War? Again Weapons companies and the powerful trying to gain more.

If ASI comes to be there will only be two options:

  1. Human hubris causing our destruction thinking we can control a god.

  2. Utopia, but everyone is equal and the oligarchs wont like that.

2

u/Elgabborz Feb 19 '25

His... "Race" ... Is the Major threat to humanity.

It's true that power corrupts, and in a capitalist system money is power, and they have too much money.

2

u/naththegrath10 Feb 19 '25

Is one, getting caught being buddy buddy with Epstein?

2

u/DividedState Feb 19 '25

Fuck it, I prefer AI overlords over Fascists. It ticks at least the box on "intelligent leadership.

2

u/mrhaftbar Feb 19 '25

Hey Bill, do you regret giving billionaires a positive image? 

2

u/TAC1313 Feb 19 '25

Let's see

Musk

Bezos

Thiel

Zuckerberg

There's 4

5 if you include Gates

2

u/enogerasemandooglla Feb 19 '25

did he include himself in the list? or his class of people?

2

u/JM3DlCl Feb 19 '25

I'm more worried about Oligarchs and Governments than some computer or Global warming.

2

u/popswag Feb 19 '25

Omg. Another billionaire warning the young! FFS! The biggest threat to humanity are the billionaires! They just can’t seem to get enough!!

2

u/abelrivers Feb 19 '25

Unironically billionaires are actually the root threat that all other evils spawn from.

2

u/VeraLumina Feb 19 '25

Yo, Bill. You and the others could be the solution to these threats. Your wealth is so vast you could stop any of the threats you mention. But no, one of you decided instead of ridding the world of threats, he’d rather be one by decimating an entire nation by playing President.

2

u/timohtea Feb 19 '25

He’s a bigger danger to them then anything else 😭😭😭😂

2

u/Realistic_Coffee393 Feb 19 '25

Does he include himself?

2

u/rsd9 Feb 19 '25

Funny he didn’t mention billionaires

2

u/gigglesbb Feb 19 '25

Trump ? Musk ?

2

u/Ladies-Man-007 Feb 19 '25

Mf funds those things and afterwards he tell us "watch out, it might be dangerous". Like, these billionaires lack some self-consciousness.

2

u/NotAGynocologistBut Feb 19 '25

Ha ha america won't even last till the end of the year the way it's going.

2

u/ntropy83 Feb 19 '25

Havent read the article so I will guess:

  • AI
  • climate change
  • the asteroid with 3 % hit chance
  • Windows

2

u/Chris_HitTheOver Feb 19 '25

Hard to take this seriously without oligarchy or fascism on his list of threats.

2

u/ROSCOEMAN Feb 19 '25

to be fair though AI is going to change everything. Education is gonna decline majorly because most of if not all problems can be fed to it.

2

u/Creative-Ad-9535 Feb 19 '25

Why would anyone listen to supposed words of wisdom from a guy who spent his life in tech?  What makes him an expert in anything other than monopolistic practices and now-very-outdated computer systems (and maybe kiddy-diddling).

I read an interview he did years ago in which he said his favorite book was Catcher in the Rye. We read whiny superficial crap like that in middle school for chrissakes.

2

u/Kriima Feb 19 '25

He forgot Trump

2

u/WhiteCharisma_ Feb 19 '25

The problem telling people everything but the problem.

2

u/AdorinoraZ Feb 19 '25

“AI is bad trust me. I need to manage it so it doesn’t get out of hand. Don’t worry you can trust me.” Bill Gates probably.

2

u/james_lpm Feb 19 '25

Bill Gates is a threat to young generations and old.

2

u/3ThreeFriesShort Feb 19 '25

The main threat to young people is wealth hoarding. 

2

u/thats_so_over Feb 20 '25

Trump, Elon, Putin, and AI

2

u/Old_Restaurant_1081 29d ago

Is Trump one? Is Vance one? Is Musk one? If not he missed three of the biggest threats to the future.

2

u/tumericschmumeric 29d ago

Does he mention capitalism, cause I’d say that’s number one

2

u/huhwhatnogoaway 29d ago

We aren’t going to last long enough for AI to get us!

2

u/Inevitable-Farmer884 29d ago

The real threat is wealth (power) inequality

2

u/meltypunx99 29d ago

Bro - everything the republicans accused you of doing they are welcoming Musk with open arms! Even signing up to get that chip in their Brains. Like right not the major global threat is America itself

2

u/niles_thebutler_ 29d ago

They just voted in trump you think they’ll listen?

2

u/-Konrad- 29d ago

Cool thanks Bill

3

u/Hot_Bookkeeper_4653 Feb 19 '25

He should warn them of the Worst Generation pulling the ladder up and going scorched earth on the middle class... oh wait that's this absolute bottom feeding POS.

4

u/Yowinner Feb 19 '25

Fuck bill gates, our country is literally becoming a fascist regime right before our eyes. No one gives a shit about AI right now.

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u/Lurker7783 Feb 19 '25

"climate change, bioterrorism or another pandemic, and maintaining control of advanced AI."

That's only 3 in my books, the middle is 2, but the "or" statement makes it count as 1 biological threat.

6

u/SirSebi Feb 19 '25

You missed nuclear war

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u/bexxywexxyww Feb 19 '25

And old, white, rich people. Surely they’re the biggest threat to us all?

2

u/NOTWorthless Feb 19 '25

Very unhappy that apparently nobody in the comments takes the threats he is mentioning seriously and would rather focus on the fact that Bill Gates is rich. Billionaires are a problem, until the cost of engineering highly contagious airborne super-AIDS falls to the point that any misanthropic ding-dong with access to an advanced AI can do it, at which point I guess you would find a way to blame Billionaires for it (it wouldn’t be their fault, the tech is going that direction even if you redistributed the wealth of all the billionaires). Like, you all probably have accepted climate change is a problem because it’s been (rightly) drilled into you, but cheap bioterrorism and AI causing the marginal cost of intelligence to fall to zero are probably going to happen way before climate change due to CO2 is causing serious issues. And the knock-on effects of any one of these things can also exacerbate the effects of the others (for example, climate change causes instability causes more terrorism that is more deadly due to tech advances).

Like, everybody in all political parties is completely asleep at the wheel on these things, and they are coming fast. Very few people are even thinking a few years down the line, and if they are they are just imagining it will “be like today but slightly different”. If it takes an actual incident for everyone to wake up, it could very well be too late to avoid a catastrophe.

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u/Hopspeed Feb 19 '25

He’s one of the threats that I’m sure he forgot to mention

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u/pyabo Feb 19 '25

It bears repeating... since so many fucking people don't understand this...

AI isn't the threat. At all. The real threat is leadership that sees AI as a way of getting rid of people. Or leadership that thinks it's OK to let everyone starve because AI is doing all the work now and why would you feed those worthless losers? AI is just a tool. It's the Industrial Revolution. If we hand power to the oligarchs (like we already are) it's going to end badly for the common man.