Billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is warning that artificial intelligence will bring on “one of the most turbulent times in human history,” and if left unchecked, potentially undermine education and student well-being.
“Ironically, the same tool that will allow people to learn more than ever could also lead to many people learning less,” Gates wrote in a nearly 6,000-word post on his GatesNotes website last week.
He cited a 2025 study suggesting that heavier AI use is associated with less critical thinking, with a stronger effect shown for younger people.
“This would be the worst possible time for humans to lose their critical thinking skills,” he wrote. “In an era of deepfakes and misinformation that can be tailored to you individually, the ability to tell what is true from what is not becomes an essential life skill.”
The warning from Gates, 70, whose Gates Foundation spent $275 million on K-12 education in the United States in 2024, comes as schools face a tech backlash from parents and others concerned about students’ reliance on various forms of digital tools and platforms.
Those worries are partly linked to the rise of AI, as teachers and principals struggle to determine whether and how to teach about the technology, and how to curb students from using AI to cheat on assignments.
Cognitive scientists and researchers, meanwhile, have seconded some of Gates’ concerns, such as AI’s tendency to flatter its users and alter its feedback based on personal characteristics. And they worry that AI will cause students to offload the hard work of learning to the tool, leaving them less prepared and knowledgeable on their own.
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Gates was more bullish on AI as recently as 2023, when he said he was as excited about the new technology as he was with the rollouts of the personal computer and the internet.
“In terms of equity, AI will either be the greatest equalizer ever invented, or the worst source of injustice,” Gates wrote in his new essay. “The challenge is monumental.”
Society is not adequately preparing for this challenge, he wrote.
“I don’t see evidence that leaders, experts, and communities are confronting the challenges adequately,” Gates said. “There is no plan to ease the entry into the AI era.”
Concerns for young people on socialization, entry-level jobs
Gates outlined several concerns for young people, many of whom are embracing AI chatbots as their daily companions, to the detriment of their social interaction with their peers.
“They talk to you in ways you’re already comfortable with,” Gates said of the chatbots. “They don’t push you outside your comfort zone. They are always available and never get mad at you. This gives them the potential to become highly addictive and to rob us of the lessons we learn from connecting with other people.”
He cited a study of more than 1,100 people who use AI companions, in which researchers at Stanford and Carnegie Mellon “found that those with smaller social networks were the most likely to turn to a chatbot for companionship. And the heavier and more emotionally personal that use became, the worse they felt.”
AI also could magnify some of the risks young people face from their exposure to social media, Gates said, including compulsive use, disrupted sleep, cyberbullying, and exposure to harmful content. Those risks may become “more difficult to escape,” he wrote, “and we should not wait another generation to start taking them seriously.”
Another area of potential disruption for young people will be on the workforce, with AI wiping out many entry- and mid-level jobs.
“I’m especially worried about young people, who will enter a workforce with fewer entry-level openings,” Gates said. “They understand the challenge because they are the most active users of AI and see both the capabilities and the rate of improvement. It’s no wonder that so many of them feel negatively about AI.”
Stefan Bauschard, an educator who writes the Substack called Education Disrupted: Teaching and Learning in an AI World, echoed Gates’ anxieties on that point.
“Schools don’t exist in isolation,” Bauschard wrote. “They exist to prepare people for a world—for work, for citizenship, for the specific set of things adults need to be able to do. Change the world and you’ve changed the assignment, whether or not anyone in the building has noticed.”
Bauschard agreed with Gates that schools will face a major challenge in preparing students for an economy in which key sectors—such as customer service, medicine, software, and manufacturing—are being disrupted.
“If the shape of [various occupations] moves in a decade, the preparation has to move too,” he said, “and schools have never moved in a decade.”
Philanthropist believes AI can free teachers’ time
The essay was not all negative. Gates said AI is demonstrating its capacity to bring breakthroughs in health care, clean energy, climate change, and food distribution.
In education, Gates said AI could create efficiencies that bring payoffs for teaching and learning.
“It can free teachers up to spend more time working with students one on one or in small groups and give them a clearer view of where the whole class is struggling,” he wrote.
[AI chatbots] don’t push you outside your comfort zone. They are always available and never get mad at you.
An AI tool that preserves the cognitive work that builds understanding—can strengthen learning for students, he added.
“When a student first encounters a new idea, the AI gives substantive explanations and offers both questions and answers,” Gates said. “Later, when it’s checking their comprehension, it holds the answer back and helps them arrive at it on their own.”
Gates said AI will help the his foundation achieve its wide goals as it has some 19 years left in which it plans to spend its remaining $200 billion.
And while the philanthropy is partnering with AI companies on some initiatives, Gates said in his essay that many questions surrounding AI need to be addressed by elected officials, policymakers, educators, and community leaders.
“Millions of people will have their lives disrupted,” he wrote. “We’ll need a stronger, more flexible social safety net to help them manage the transition.”
