WASHINGTON: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has warned that artificial intelligence has become powerful enough to potentially enable events causing massive loss of life, particularly when advanced AI tools are used by people with malicious intent.
Speaking in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, Gates said AI could be used for cyberattacks, fraud, attacks on critical infrastructure and other forms of large-scale harm. He said the combination of increasingly powerful AI systems and individuals with harmful intentions represents a major emerging threat.
“AI is certainly powerful enough to drive events that cause a billion deaths,” Gates said, adding that there had never been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with ill intent and the latest AI tools.
Gates said the danger was no longer limited to governments or large organizations. According to him, small groups equipped with advanced AI could potentially carry out activities that historically required the resources of major states.
He cited potential threats including attempts to defraud individuals, disrupt electricity networks and interfere with financial systems. He argued that governments need to establish safeguards and monitoring mechanisms for sophisticated AI systems.
Gates also highlighted the difficulty of distinguishing beneficial and harmful uses of advanced AI. He said developing a new medicine and developing biological weapons could involve technologies that are closely related, making oversight particularly challenging.
He called for sophisticated AI models to be monitored and for detailed records to be maintained of what the systems are doing. Gates has also argued that self-regulation by AI companies is not sufficient and that governments and law-enforcement authorities need to be involved in establishing safeguards.
Discussing AI talks between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Gates said dialogue between the two countries was welcome but argued that there was not yet a substantive framework for jointly addressing the risks posed by advanced AI.
Gates has said that AI safeguards should not be viewed as preventing the United States from competing with China. He also rejected the characterization of AI safety concerns as a “hoax,” arguing that both countries have an interest in preventing potentially dangerous uses of the technology.
He further cautioned that a “kill switch” alone would not be sufficient to prevent serious AI-related incidents, saying monitoring and records of AI activity would also be necessary.