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Bill Gates says younger generations should be worried about 4 'very scary' things

Bill Gates says that if he were young again, he'd be afraid of more than just the atom bomb. "There's, you know, about four or five things that are very scary, and the only one that I really understood and worried about a lot when I was young was nuclear war," Gates said in an interview with Patrick Collison.

Gates, the founder of Microsoft and chair of the Gates Foundation, shared his perspective on the evolving risks facing society.

"Today I think we'd add climate change, bioterrorism/pandemic, and keeping control of AI in some form," Gates said. "So, you know, now we have four footnotes."

Gates also described social polarization as a problem, later adding, "The younger generation has to be very afraid of those things." This isn't the first time Gates has identified these areas of concern. In a blog post in 2023, Gates said that as his family grew, so did his desire to better the world.

"A grandchild does make you think about how we make sure the future is better — politics, health, climate, etc.," he wrote. Gates argued that society is suffering from a dearth of intelligence. But he believes AI could present a solution rather than a problem. Though some have warned of AI's cataclysmic potential, Gates thinks it could be harnessed productively.

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