"I believe that, within the next decade, we will not only get the world back on track but enter a new era of unprecedented progress," Gates wrote in his annual letter.

Bill Gates has given billions of dollars to global efforts like strengthening healthcare and protecting the climate. But as those areas suffered dramatic funding cuts that impacted people to a “devastating effect last year,” he said 2025 has tested his trademark optimism.

Bill Gates says there’s “no upper limit” on how intelligent AI systems will become, and warns the world needs to prepare now for the disruptions ahead.

In his annual lookahead letter, the billionaire and philanthropist warns that markets alone can't save the planet.

Thiel was a co-founder of PayPal and used the money from its sale to eBay to start a hedge fund. He acquired a 10% stake in Meta Platforms (then Facebook) as its first outside investor. He holds substantial stakes in Stripe and SpaceX, which are worth billions on their own.

Gates was keen to highlight that society needs to do more to ready itself for an AI era, and that work so far hasn’t been adequate. There are two key issues arising because of the technology, he believes, the first being artificial intelligence being used by bad actors, and the second being disruption to the jobs market.

In this week’s edition of The Prototype, we look at building a virtual fusion power plant, a major quantum breakthrough, AI for drug discovery and more.