Bill Gates has called for stronger regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), warning that increasingly powerful AI tools could be exploited by malicious actors to cause large-scale harm.
In an interview with NBC News’ Meet the Press, Gates said there had never been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with harmful intentions and advanced AI tools.
He urged US lawmakers to become more involved in regulating AI development, arguing that self-regulation by the technology industry would not be sufficient.
Gates said law enforcement agencies and policymakers should help determine appropriate safeguards and monitoring mechanisms for AI systems. He acknowledged that additional oversight could create some regulatory burden for the industry but argued that it would not significantly slow technological development.
Gates also acknowledged concerns that AI could pose an existential threat to humanity in the coming years. However, he stressed that the risks of AI being misused by malicious actors to cause widespread damage in the present should not be overlooked.
His comments came as senior executives from three major AI companies briefed the United Nations Security Council on the potential security risks associated with increasingly capable AI systems.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Hugging Face co-founder Clément Delangue were among the technology leaders who addressed the 15-member council during the annual General Assembly gathering.
Amodei warned the council that poorly managed AI could pose a risk to humanity as a whole.
Governments around the world are grappling with how to regulate AI systems that are advancing rapidly. The United States and China, the two leading players in AI development, remain divided over the need for international safeguards and the extent of government intervention.
Yoshua Bengio, a Canadian AI scientist and co-chair of the Independent International Scientific Panel established by the UN General Assembly, also warned the Security Council that the dangers associated with AI were real and could emerge quickly.
Bengio said AI represented an unprecedented challenge that no single country could contain on its own and that its potential risks could cross national borders.
Despite growing calls for greater oversight, US President Donald Trump has opposed efforts to establish what he described as a global framework for controlling AI. Trump has praised the technology while saying the United States would approach its development cautiously.
He also argued that excessive regulation could restrict the growth of AI, which he said could ultimately have an impact greater than that of the Industrial Revolution.
