Bill Gates in Stockholm: 'AI will multiply healthcare innovation'

Bill Gates believes artificial intelligence could become one of the most powerful tools yet in global health – not just for discovering new treatments, but for getting care to the people who need it most.

“AI will multiply healthcare innovation, helping us both on the discovery and the delivery,” the Microsoft founder said on Thursday night, speaking at the Gates Foundation’s annual Goalkeepers event in Stockholm.

Earlier this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the foundation announced a partnership with OpenAI. The collaboration will focus on collecting and updating African languages and feeding them into large language models, with the aim of making AI tools applicable to healthcare professionals on the continent.

“By doing that, you can dramatically improve the quality of care and make it more efficient,” Gates said. “The majority of people in Africa never get any time at all with a fully trained doctor, and the gap we can fill there is enormous.”

He reflected on the irony that his first career was about making computers smarter – only for him to later conclude that what the world really needed was vaccines, nutrition, and basic healthcare. But now he sees the role that computers now play in that endeavour too.

“But now AI has made some incredible breakthroughs,” he said. “It’s bringing those two worlds back together.”

Beyond clinical advice, Gates framed AI as a force multiplier across global health – speeding up drug discovery, lowering delivery costs, and helping frontline workers diagnose and treat patients more effectively.

‘I remain hopeful’

A long queue had formed outside the Space venue in central Stockholm to hear the Microsoft founder speak. Zooming out from his thoughts of AI in healthcare, Gates reflected on the current state of global development.

Despite recent setbacks, including the slashing of USAID and geopolitical tensions, Gates insisted he remains optimistic.

“I’m so hopeful that I’ve made a commitment that the Gates Foundation will spend all of its money over the next 20 years,” he said.

Gates went on to reiterate the central message of his widely read essay earlier this year: that richer countries should invest more in poorer ones, not just out of moral duty but because it is one of the most effective ways to cut child mortality and curb deadly diseases.

“I believe the Golden Rule has not been repealed,” Gates said. “The fact that we should devote our resources to those who need them most is common to all the world’s religions.”

He argued that, as the global economy continues to grow, the share of resources required to ensure children not only survive but thrive is comparatively modest.

“Most of the children born in the world this century will be born in Africa,” he said. “I wish they were born here – it would be better for them. But population growth is happening in these poor countries.”

That demographic shift, Gates added, leaves the future finely balanced.

“Will these children become a burden and a source of total instability? Or will they become the inventive young generation the world needs?”

Sweden as a role model

Gates also used the occasion to praise Sweden – and the Nordic countries more broadly – for maintaining relatively high levels of development aid despite domestic political pressures.

“Sweden is phenomenal. The Nordic countries have really set an example,” he said. “Even in these tough times, that generosity is maintained. It shows the values. It shows commitment.”

The UN has long urged rich countries to spend at least 0.7% of GDP on development aid, a target met by only around eight nations, including Denmark, Germany, and Sweden.

“I’m the biggest lobbyist for governments to be generous,” Gates said. “I go around the world saying the rich countries really should do more. I need to figure out how to be more persuasive.”