Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates warned in an interview that aired Sunday that AI development without government safeguards could lead to a “billion deaths,” doubling down on the warning before contradicting President Donald Trump’s previous insistence that calls for AI regulation were a “hoax.
In a “Meet the Press” interview that aired on Sunday, the billionaire Microsoft co-founder said he hoped to meet with Trump about AI regulation.
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Key Facts
In an extended interview with “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker, Gates said establishing an international agreement around regulating the new technology was “more difficult” than negotiations over nuclear weapons during the Cold War.
When asked about Trump’s “hoax” comments directly, Gates said “it’s not a hoax,” but also said he believed Trump could come around to his way of thinking.
Gates said he wanted to meet with Trump to discuss AI, but he told Welker that he would not be advocating a development slowdown: “I’ll be saying we should impose a requirement on all the AIs in the US. and I expect China doesn’t want bioterrorism, they don’t want big attacks by nongovernmental actors.”
When asked if it was possible AI was already out of control, Gates gave an emphatic “no” answer, insisting AI is not running “millions of robots yet” and “we can turn off the computer”—however, he also claimed it “absolutely” needed government regulation as well as self-regulation from the industry.
implementing safeguards on AI was “the world’s most obvious thing,” but the world is looking to the U.S. for leadership and people are “a little confused when that’s not taking place.”
Crucial Quote
“The most dangerous thing right now is people with bad intent using AI,” Gates said, giving examples of individuals trying to defraud others or shut down electric infrastructure. “Historically, countries had cyberattack teams. Now small groups with AI can do what only the biggest countries could do.”
Key Background
In recent weeks, several major leaders of frontier AI labs have come out in favor of government regulation for the technology, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and xAI’s Elon Musk.
Many of these leaders have cited concerns about hacking incidents involving advanced models, including the OpenAI-Hugging Face hacking incident earlier this summer and a report from Anthropic detailing misuse of its Claude chatbot. However, Trump has refused calls for government regulation, claiming in a Truth Social post earlier this month the concerns are a “hoax” and that China is “doing absolutely nothing to stand in the way of AI.”
Forbes Valuation
We estimate Bill Gates’ net worth at $115 billion, making him the 17th-wealthiest person in the world.
