Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has warned that artificial intelligence (AI) has become "powerful enough" to help cause the deaths of a substantial portion of humanity. He thus joins a growing number of technology industry leaders and practitioners calling for attention to the existential risks AI may bring.
In an excerpt from an interview set to air this weekend, Gates said: "AI is certainly powerful enough to drive some events that could cause, say, a billion deaths. Never in history has there been a weapon as powerful as the latest AI tools in the hands of a malicious actor."
As AI technology advances rapidly, warnings in Silicon Valley about its potentially catastrophic consequences are also increasing. Anthropic PBC employee Jacob Coxon resigned earlier this month, accusing his two former employers, Anthropic and OpenAI, of "gambling with our lives" by "racing toward superintelligent AI." Another Anthropic employee said he believes the probability of AI causing the extinction of all humanity within the next 10 years exceeds 10%.
In the interview, Gates said that industry self-regulation alone is not enough. He said: "Law enforcement and politicians need to be part of the discussion to make clear what safety protections and monitoring measures should be adopted, and these measures must be mandatory."
In an article published in August, Gates previously pointed out that bad actors could use increasingly powerful AI tools to launch cyberattacks, carry out fraud, spread disinformation, and cause other forms of large-scale harm to hospitals, financial institutions, power grids, and government systems.
Comments