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Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that artificial intelligence requires protection measures beyond the scope of self-regulation, calling for legislation in the US Congress.
Gates added in an interview on NBC, "We need law enforcement agencies and politicians to participate in a discussion about the form of these guarantees and oversight... and it should be mandatory"
A surprising wave of support for federal government intervention erupted after Open AI announced in July that an independent AI agent went out of control during a security test and hacked another company, thereby bypassing human oversight. Gates joined this opinion, saying that the government should intervene.
He said, "No one thinks self-regulation is enough"
In a rare gesture of unity, CEOs of competing companies, including Anthropic, Open AI, DeepMind of Google, Microsoft, and XAI, called for slowing the pace of development of AI systems whose capabilities are constantly increasing.
However, US President Donald Trump and other opponents of additional AI regulations say that new government restrictions will allow China to have the upper hand in the AI revolution. Trump publicly described calls for new AI laws as a "hoax"
Gates emphasized that protective measures will not significantly hinder this technology, and the risks of not implementing them are real.
He said, "It's not a hoax at all"
Warnings about the risks of AI are not new. But they have gained a more urgent tone this month after researchers at leading AI labs linked these concerns to a timeline and the likelihood of their occurrence.
Jacob Coxson, a former researcher at Anthropic, warned that AI could eliminate humanity by the end of this decade, prompting US lawmakers to call for new rules to regulate this technology.
Evan Hubinger, head of the Compatibility Science Department at Anthropic, echoed Coxson's warning, saying that the likelihood of such an event occurring in the next decade is over 10%.
Some policymakers have proposed imposing a "kill switch" that would allow federal authorities to shut down AI models. Gates said he is not opposed to having a type of "kill switch," but that it would not be enough unless other protective measures are also implemented.
The United States and China agreed to start a dialogue on AI following Chinese President Xi Jinping's recent visit to Washington.
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