Gates states that humans losing control over AI is not the urgent risk that needs to be addressed
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has underscored the need to implement safeguards amid the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), but maintained that there is no current risk of humans "completely" losing control of AI tools.
Gates, in an interview with NBC, joined the wave of tech leaders calling for safeguards surrounding AI, and said that having them was the "world's most obvious thing."
"There needs to be legislation passed in Washington," he said in the interview.
"You need law enforcement and the politicians to get into the discussion about what safeguards and monitoring look like and that has to be a required thing."
Gates' remarks come amid increasing pressure on frontier AI companies to have third-party organisations independently assess AI risks.
An open letter signed by more than 100 AI experts and evaluators is being circulated online, asking frontier AI firms to implement these assessments with credible and independent evaluators.
Leading AI executives, including Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, have also expressed the need to slow down AI development to address risks associated with the technology.
The biggest risk involving AI
The calls for regulation and a slowdown come following recent reports of AI models going rogue to the point of even attacking government websites.
A former Anthropic researcher, Jacob Coxon, also blew the whistle earlier this month and warned that leading AI firms are not "acting responsibly."
"They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives," said Coxon on X, as he posted his resignation on the platform.
But Gates maintained that AI going rogue is not the most dangerous risk associated with AI.
"There is not a current risk of these AIs getting completely out of control," Gates said in the interview.
According to the Microsoft co-founder, the recent loss-of-control incidents involving AI have prompted people to scrutinise the technology, even if that was not the "imminent risk."
For Gates, the bigger risk involving the technology is people with bad intent who plan to use AI tools to defraud an individual, shut down an electric network, or even scramble bank accounts.
"The same monitoring that we put in to avoid bad people using AI is exactly the monitoring you want to see if the AI itself is initiating harmful activity," he said.
"But the thing that's urgent has to do with bad people using AI, not the AI going off on its own."
This is not the first time that Gates has addressed the risks associated with AI. Last month, he published an urgent 6,000-word essay warning the public that AI will eliminate jobs "permanently."
