Bill Gates plans to widen his push on AI safety, Axios reported, citing unnamed sources. He is personally leaning on business leaders and considering a major deployment of his resources, according to the report.

“I can reach CEOs on this better than you can.” Bill Gates, to one person he consulted on AI safety, according to Axios

Associates told Axios the remark showed a return to “OG” form. Gates has yet to define the exact shape of his campaign, Axios said.

Why Gates changed his mind

Gates has grown dismayed by rising model capabilities, alarming security incidents and what he sees as weak regulation, Axios’s sources said. As he prepared his case for stronger rules, he spoke at length with AI executives, researchers and safety advocates. One of them was Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei.

That process led Gates to see containing AI risks as one of the most important issues of his lifetime, the people said.

In 2023, Gates wrote that “the risks of AI are real but manageable”. In August, he called for new institutions to coordinate AI policy, jobs reserved for humans and a tax on AI tokens and robots. Last month, he warned that AI could cause a billion deaths, and took the case to Ezra Klein’s podcast.

Some people Gates has spoken to called his advocacy a “comeback tour”, Axios reported. They described it as an attempt to rebuild a legacy hurt by his past association with Jeffrey Epstein. Gates has said he knows some people may dismiss his warnings because of those ties.

“What I did do, in some ways, was very limited, and it was motivated by my desire to raise money. But … it was a huge mistake.” Bill Gates, to Axios in August

A clash with Washington

His calls for strong regulation will put Gates on a collision course with the Trump administration, Axios said. The administration favours a lighter touch. It has organised a group of top officials to police the industry through a voluntary safety pact.