The AI doomerism playbook is a copy-paste of COVID. Bill Gates is back talking about international organizations to manage the next crisis. Swap "pandemic" for "AI" and you have the same pitch. He wants models monitored. He wants the US and China to agree on restrictions. He floated taxes on AI tokens and reserving jobs for humans. This is the same man who wrote "shutdown anywhere means shutdown everywhere" in 2020. Meanwhile the AI safety org METR operates out of Berkeley with Oxford-connected staff and a technical assistance contract with the European AI Office. The companies pushing hardest for regulation are the ones who benefit most. Make compliance expensive enough and no startup can compete. Call it safety. People are catching on. They remember COVID. They remember what they gave up. The same playbook is getting called out in real time now.