Bill Gates warns AI is powerful enough to cause a billion deaths

[UltraShane86]

Bill Gates has given one of his starkest warnings yet about artificial intelligence. Speaking to Kristen Welker on NBC's Meet the Press, he said AI is certainly powerful enough to drive events that could cause a billion deaths. He also said there has never been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with ill intent and the latest AI tools. Coming from someone who spent decades as one of tech's biggest optimists, that is quite a shift in tone

This builds on a memo he put out in August, where he described AI as more consequential than almost any technology in history. In it he said AI could be the greatest equaliser ever invented or the worst source of injustice. He also warned that on the current course and speed, there is a very high chance of a net negative outcome. Those are strong words from the co-founder of Microsoft, a company that has bet enormous sums on AI

His answer is regulation. Gates wants federal legislation with enforceable safeguards, because he does not think companies policing themselves is enough. That includes proper government oversight, independent evaluators with ongoing access to the labs and real public accountability rather than voluntary promises

It is worth being clear about what he did and did not say. He was describing what AI could be used to do in the wrong hands, not predicting that a billion people will die or putting a date on anything. The concern is mainly about misuse, where bad actors use powerful tools to cause harm on a scale that was not possible before. That is a different worry from AI going rogue by itself

There is an interesting tension here as well. Only a couple of weeks ago the Gates Foundation announced it would spend at least $1 billion over two years expanding access to AI, mostly in education and health. So he clearly still sees huge upside. Is this a sensible call for guardrails from someone who knows the industry, or is the billion deaths line just headline bait? Keen to hear what people think

Bill Gates issues chilling AI doomsday warning saying one BILLION people will be killed... unless humanity takes his advice | Daily Mail Onlinewww.dailymail.com