Bill Gates has called on federal lawmakers and U.S. law enforcement agencies to regulate the development of artificial intelligence (AI), saying in an interview broadcast Sunday that uncontrolled technology could cause “a billion deaths” and “no one thinks self-regulation is enough.” “There is a need for law enforcement and politicians to get into the discussion about what safeguards and monitoring look like,” the Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist told NBC Meet the Press host Kristen Welker. “And that has to be something necessary.” Using a term meant to describe an expense required to run a business, Gates continued: “It will be a little overhead for the industry, but not a dramatic slowdown of what they’re doing.” Elsewhere in the interview, excerpts of which NBC circulated in advance, saw Gates dramatically warn that AI in the wrong hands would be “certainly powerful enough to drive events that, you know, cause a billion deaths.” “As powerful as the combination of people with bad intentions using the latest AI tools,” Gates added, echoing similar recent warnings from a wide range of tech and political figures. Gates is otherwise generally considered to be optimistic about the future of humans. Many of those who reported or commented on his conversation with Welker noted that it occurred in the wake of a nearly 6,000-word essay he published in late August warning about AI and the potentially lethal evils it poses to humanity on a large scale. Fellow tech moguls, including Sam Altman and Elon Musk, have joined Gates in calling for a slowdown in the development of AI, which some experts theorize could precipitate the mass destruction of humans through biological weapons and nuclear war, among other things. Meanwhile, Microsoft itself has been questioned for playing a role in stoking some of the dystopian concerns surrounding AI. Company employees and activists have organized a campaign aimed at getting Microsoft to cut ties with the Israeli military, which has used AI tools to kill in Gaza and – along with US forces – in Iran, according to a Guardian essay published on Friday. The essay’s authors, Mohamed Hussein and Granate Kim of the group No Azure for Apartheid, further warned that “the horrors wrought by AI” are also being seen in the U.S. For example, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has used artificial intelligence tools like Microsoft’s Azure to monitor, arrest and deport immigrants en masse, Hussein and Kim wrote. Gates’ August essay and Sunday’s interview were two of his first major forays into the public since he became ensnared in the scandal surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who pleaded guilty in 2008 to procuring the prostitution of a minor before committing suicide while incarcerated. sex trafficking charges 11 years later. An outside review commissioned by Gates’ philanthropic foundation and published in July determined that he was among several staff members and leaders at the organization who had collectively held about 30 meetings with Epstein from 2011 to 2014. Gates has not been accused of involvement in Epstein’s admitted or alleged crimes. He has said he regrets “every minute” he spent with Epstein, and continues to chair the $89 billion Gates Foundation charity. In a lighter moment during Welker’s interview with Gates, the host asked him: “Is there any way for you, professionally or personally, to avoid AI and say, ‘I’m not going to consult with it on this case?’” Gates, with a chuckle and a smile, responded, “Well, I won’t.” using it for my personal relationships. I don’t say, ‘Hey, do you like me? Hey, am I a good guy?’ “So I never went down that path, because I’m lucky in terms of my family and my friends and everything. I don’t socialize with the AI. He knows I’m a very serious person.”
