# Machine Thought Was a Very Tough Problem by Bill Gates > “Eventually we may figure out how to make the computer think, but that turns out to be a very tough problem. In fact, there’s been almost no progress made on it.” > **— Bill Gates**, *Late Show with David Letterman, 1995* ## Sources and Context - **Published source:** [Late Show with David Letterman, 1995](https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/08/bill-gates-dangers-ai/688418/) — direct or near-primary publication carrying the complete statement. - **Article placement:** [[articles/The Immediate AI Risk Is the Public|The Immediate AI Risk Is the Public]] supplies the interpretive placement and links the statement to public competence, AI danger, strategic acceleration and machine succession. - **Editorial treatment:** The article separates the two clauses with an attribution; the Reminder restores the complete contiguous statement played during the 2026 interview and normalizes the terminal punctuation. - **Context:** Gates's 1995 assessment supplies the historical baseline for the article's central contrast: machine thought moved from an unsolved aspiration to systems that exceeded his strongest technical skill and distributed capabilities once limited to nation-states. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Immediate AI Risk Is the Public|The Immediate AI Risk Is the Public]] - **Companion article:** [[articles/Vertically Integrating an AI Superpower from AI Factory to Citizen|Vertically Integrating an AI Superpower from AI Factory to Citizen]] - **Companion article:** [[articles/Safety Discourse Is Transition Discourse|Safety Discourse Is Transition Discourse]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Bill Gates|Bill Gates]] - [[wiki/Artificial Intelligence|Artificial Intelligence]] - [[wiki/Thinking Machine|Thinking Machine]] - [[wiki/Machine Intelligence Continuum|Machine Intelligence Continuum]] - [[wiki/Computer Science|Computer Science]] - [[wiki/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “Eventually we may figure out how to make the computer think, but that turns out to be a very tough problem. In fact, there’s been almost no progress made on it.” — Bill Gates, Late Show with David Letterman, 1995 https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-bill-gates-machine-thought-was-a-very-tough-problem ```