Gates: Next 12-18 Months of AI Choices Will Decide Who Benefits
Bill Gates says AI decisions over the next 12-18 months will shape who gains from the technology, urging India to build AI on local languages, Indian data and homegrown talent.
The choices made about artificial intelligence over the coming year and a half will go a long way in deciding who gains from the technology in the years that follow, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has said.
In an interview, Gates described AI as fundamentally different from earlier technologies, with its dangers and its promise both hinging on how it is built and deployed. He said the risks deserve serious attention, but argued that the same technology can deliver substantial benefits depending on the decisions taken now.
India's opportunity
Gates said India is well placed to spread AI's gains beyond big cities to villages and small towns, pointing to the country's digital public infrastructure as a strong base. He sketched a farm-level example: a farmer photographing a diseased leaf on a mobile phone and getting a diagnosis and suggested action within minutes in a local language, followed by a drone spraying the field to head off pest damage or crop loss.
Making AI work across India's many languages and dialects is central to that vision, he said. Systems trained mostly on English can misread health questions posed in local languages, he noted, making rigorous testing especially important in healthcare.
Language alone is not enough, according to Gates. He said AI must be useful to all Indians only if it is built on Indian data for Indian conditions, with India deciding how that data is managed and protected. He also called for talent across fields — policymakers, researchers, doctors, teachers and agriculture experts — who will shape how the technology is applied.
Health, farming and security
In healthcare, Gates said AI can give service providers better information for timely decisions, helping an ASHA worker or a doctor at a health centre spot conditions earlier and refer patients to specialists. He cautioned, however, that health AI needs a longer development runway to prove safety, and that health data is deeply personal and must be protected.
On agriculture, he cited Maharashtra's MahaVISTAAR advisory service as an example of AI already operating at scale. The free service is woven into the state's digital infrastructure and lets farmers seek tailored advice on crops, weather and pests through an app, voice call or message in their own language. More than 700,000 farmers have joined, with roughly 70,000 more signing up each month, he said.
Gates flagged cybersecurity as a near-term worry, noting that the same tools that help people do useful work can be turned against critical systems such as a hospital's. Governments and companies, he said, need to invest in defences now.
He added that work itself will change quickly as AI spreads, making skills development vital for India's young, tech-savvy workforce. Efforts such as Bhashini will matter in extending AI across the country's linguistic diversity, he said, adding that his foundation and other organisations have committed to helping three billion people access AI in their own language, particularly underrepresented ones.
Ultimately, Gates said, India's AI opportunity rests not just on access to the technology but on how well it is adapted to local needs, safeguarded through sound data practices, and supported by people able to deploy it responsibly.