Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is calling for stronger limits on artificial intelligence, warning it could ultimately cause more harm than good if governments and developers fail to control its risks. In a 12-page Gates Notes essay titled “The turbulent AI era is here. The choices we make now are critical,” published August 26, 2026, he wrote that AI will either be the greatest equalizer ever invented or the worst source of injustice, and that leaders remain unprepared for a transition that could reshape law, customer service, medicine, software and manufacturing within a decade. Gates proposed Human Reserved roles—permanently or temporarily shielding selected jobs from automation, with an upper bound near 40% in the most aggressive version—and taxes on robots and AI usage tokens to slow displacement and fund retraining, arguing payroll taxes already nudge firms toward machines. He told CNN systems have become dramatically more powerful faster than expected, flagging cyberattacks, bioterrorism, psychosocial harms and the longer-term risk that capable models could act against human interests; OECD research has noted weaker conditions for young workers though it stops short of blaming AI. As the European Union began enforcing major AI Act rules on general-purpose models and transparency for chatbots, deepfakes and AI-generated content, Gates pressed for broader international oversight drawing on nuclear inspections, aviation regulation and environmental agreements, while still stressing AI’s potential gains in healthcare, agriculture, education and science if benefits are widely shared.