WASHINGTON: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has warned that artificial intelligence could drive events causing one billion deaths, as a sharp debate emerged in Washington over whether governments should regulate advanced AI or avoid rules that could slow the United States in its race with China.
Gates told NBC's "Meet the Press" that AI was unlike earlier technological advances and could become vastly more intelligent than humans over the next several years.
"This is truly an evolutionary event," Gates said. "We have created an intelligent species that, in many respects, is already smarter than we are, and over the next several years at kind of exponentially improving level will be insanely smarter than we are."
Asked whether AI could end humanity, Gates said: "AI is certainly powerful enough to drive events that, you know, cause a billion deaths."
"There's never been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with ill intent using the latest AI tools," he added.
Gates said governments lacked sufficient expertise to understand dangerous thresholds involving biological attacks, cyberattacks and other potential uses of the technology. He rejected reliance on voluntary safeguards by companies.
"No one thinks self-regulation is enough," Gates said.
He called for legislation requiring safeguards and monitoring systems. Such requirements would impose some costs on the industry but would not dramatically slow its development, he said.
"It's completely irresponsible not to require every AI to have these safeguards and monitoring capabilities," Gates said. (IANS)
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