Gates Foundation warns AI could widen inequality as foundation pledges $1B to expand access

Bill Gates is warning technology companies and world leaders that they must act now to ensure artificial intelligence combats social inequities

NEW YORK -- NEW YORK (AP) — Bill Gates is warning technology companies and world leaders that they must act now to ensure artificial intelligence combats social inequities rather than deepening disparities — and his foundation is pledging $1 billion to improve access.

The Microsoft co-founder made the appeal in the Gates Foundation's annual Goalkeepers report , which tracks progress on the development goals set by the United Nations to improve quality of life by 2030. The donation announced Tuesday will be spread over the next two years for AI-focused efforts to train models on local languages, improve health outcomes, upgrade educational tools and inform small farmers' practices around the world.

And despite the United States' international aid cuts , Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman said he would continue pressing Congress and President Donald Trump's administration to lead the way on foreign assistance.

“We haven’t given up on the U.S.,” Suzman told The Associated Press in an interview. “We will acknowledge it’s been a challenging period with the U.S. government on this. But we believe there is still a case to be made.”

The long-prepared report arrives as executives at leading AI companies urge others in the industry to slow its fast-moving development . An ex-Anthropic researcher's resignation over concerns that developers are not acting responsibly has revived the debate over whether increasingly powerful AI models could escape human control.

Gates shared similar concerns in a post last month on his website. AI will either be “the greatest equalizer” or the “worst source of injustice,” he wrote. He acknowledged that the technology will empower people to carry out fraud, disinformation, surveillance, cyberattacks and bioterrorism.

The Gates Foundation, one of the world's largest global health funders, is focused less on funding safeguards and more so on democratizing what Gates considers to be the technology's benefits. AI is one of several focus areas benefiting from this year's record budget . Gates pledged in last month's blog post that “all of our work” will “take full advantage of AI.”

“How will we use this technology to make the world a fairer place and keep it from widening the divide between rich and poor?” he posed. “How will we protect the people who are most vulnerable to the harms caused by artificial intelligence, including those who lose their livelihoods and the sense that they are in control of their future?”

The Gates Foundation views AI as “a potentially transformative tool” for a “world that is in a little bit of crisis,” according to Suzman. The foundation projected 2025 to be the first year this century with an increase in child deaths in last year's report. The Trump administration's disruptions to a global AIDS relief program have impeded efforts to prevent and treat the disease in dozens of countries. Meanwhile, the gap between rich and poor nations is growing even wider , according to a recent U.N.