Bill Gates Declares An AI Pandemic

The world's most credentialed catastrophist has found another global emergency.

My column from this morning, originally published at American Greatness:

Bill Gates, the guy who tried to destroy the world over the Wuhan sniffles, says it’s time to panic about AI. Should we?

The billionaire Microsoft founder is very concerned about AI. He is concerned about our jobs, our families, our ability to think and reason about the issue, and of course, how AI impacts his precious climate change narrative. What he is not concerned about, apparently, is his own track record as a nanny state catastrophist.

In a several-thousand-word essay on his website, Gates tells us that the time to act on AI is now, well before any of his predictions come to fruition or go bust.

We have seen this movie. Gates was one of the chief antagonists for a national shutdown and forced compliance with vax mandates over the COVID-hysteria years. As someone who covered this beat closely, it’s easy to recall the Gates-funded Imperial College model that tried to panic the masses by projecting millions of American deaths in the absence of sweeping lockdowns. Gates and his underlings went on TV and demanded sweeping shutdowns. He got his way, and it resulted in millions of American businesses destroyed and American families torn apart, for no reason whatsoever. He has shown no remorse and has simply moved on to the next current thing, AI, which apparently demands his infinite wisdom.

The bill came due in tragic fashion. The average American student remains significantly behind pre-COVID achievement levels in math and reading, with the gap widest in the poorest places in the country. Some student metrics fell to their lowest point in decades. The policies that Gates demanded hit hardest on the people who could least afford it.

Not everyone was hurt during the COVID years. Gates, for his part, made a massive windfall on his early investments in mRNA vaccines. Once an mRNA hype man, he later conceded that his “miracle cure” shots weren’t actually useful, and he simply moved on to the next issue.

Now, in 2026, the AI era is here, and Bill Gates is back demanding a centrally planned response to AI innovation. For Gates watchers, it’s easy to notice that the policy structure of his arguments hasn’t changed.

Another new threat that is “unprecedented.” The public is “underestimating” it. Existing institutions are inadequate. New institutions must be built. Humiliating ourselves before China is again necessary. And time is of the essence. We must act right now before it’s too late. We can’t wait for this apparent catastrophe. We must preempt it like the Bush Doctrine in Iraq.

In his essay, Gates says that he wants a sweeping domestic apparatus with authority spanning employment, education, taxation, energy, elections, public health, finance, law enforcement, transportation, and public lands. But that’s still not enough. He also wants to install a new national and global regulatory body. He offers the post-9/11 government reorganization as his benchmark. Who knew the TSA was so popular? Well, Gates apparently wants the equivalent of a Patriot Act and TSA for AI. Hold his vegan, non-GMO, toxic sludge beer, Dario Amodei.

In his infinite central planning wisdom, Gates says it’s time to have jobs reserved by government decree. He calls them “Human Reserved” jobs. To his credit, Gates lists some objections himself but doesn’t really answer his own critiques. He moves forward with the proposal anyway, declaring it “will need to be worked out in public” after it’s implemented. It’s similar to the Pelosi-ism of “pass it so you can find out what’s in it.”

Next, Gates wants to tax AI tokens and robots. He concedes it isn’t economically efficient, but the man with a $100 billion-plus net worth argues “we” can afford the inefficiency because innovation will make up for it. It would “slow the rush away from human labor a little,” he says. The flaw with this argument is that the government would somehow be expected to devote that new tax revenue to something worthwhile. In reality, he is just arguing that America should slow down innovation because he feels bad vibes about human progress right now.

Then there is the China appeal. Gates writes that “some cooperation between the U.S. and China will be required” and holds up Beijing’s AI rules as the world’s most advanced. This is the same guy who argued that America should embrace the ruthless Wuhan lockdowns. Gates has repeatedly praised the Chinese Communist Party’s governance, which he seems to love because of the iron grip the Central Party maintains over the population. We have run “cooperation” experiments with China before, and it has resulted in America being bamboozed by Beijing. Under the Obama-era Paris Agreement, China pledged to curb emissions before 2030 (China never made any concessions), while the United States accepted immediate costs and paid out billions to meet the new standards. The Gates framework will be more of the same.

Gates does concede that AI will bring us great things for humanity, such as cheaper medicine, more accurate diagnostics, productivity for farmers, competent legal and financial help for people who could never afford either, and more. But he says it’s more important to adhere to his nanny state agenda, because the catastrophist has strong feelings about the trajectory it is on. Those positive outcomes he lists are only possible through open markets and free competition, not through a global authority chaired by men like Bill Gates, who were catastrophically wrong the last time they wielded enormous authority and paid no price for it.

The choices we make now are indeed critical. Our first choice should be to stop listening to Bill Gates.