By By: Staff Writer
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has warned that Artificial Intelligence is now powerful enough to cause a catastrophe on an unimaginable scale. In an interview with NBC News, Gates said AI could be used by people with bad intentions to drive events that cause a billion deaths, and urged Washington not to leave AI safety only in the hands of tech companies.
Gates said the US urgently needs a law to regulate how powerful AI systems are built and monitored. “You need law enforcement and the politicians to get into the discussion,” he said, adding that mandatory safeguards will not stop AI progress but will make it safer. He stressed he is not saying a billion people will die, but that AI now has the potential to enable such an event if left unchecked.
His warning comes as AI leaders are divided. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have also called for regulation and global safety standards, while Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes companies should handle safety internally. As the debate continues in Washington, states like California, Maryland and New York have already started creating their own boards to oversee AI safety.
