Establishing global cooperation to regulate artificial intelligence could prove even more difficult than the Cold War-era negotiations over nuclear arms control, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has warned.
Speaking Sunday, September 27, on NBC News’ Meet the Press, Gates was asked whether the United States and China could cooperate on AI in the same way Washington and the Soviet Union eventually worked together to limit nuclear weapons.
“It’s harder than that,” Gates said.
He noted that countries have found ways to cooperate on a range of complex challenges, from aviation safety to preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Ultimately, he said, nations will have to find a similar path toward cooperation on artificial intelligence.
“We’re all in this together as humanity,” Gates said.
Rather than dramatically slowing the pace of AI development, Gates urged governments, law-enforcement agencies and technology companies to work together on safeguards and oversight. He also said Congress should pass legislation governing artificial intelligence, arguing that voluntary self-regulation by technology companies is not sufficient.
Gates, who has repeatedly warned about the potential dangers of advanced AI, said the technology could become extraordinarily destructive if it falls into the hands of people intent on causing harm.
“AI definitely has the capability to set in motion events that could kill a billion people,” Gates said. “There’s never been a weapon more powerful than the coordination of malicious people using the latest AI tools.”
While welcoming the technology industry’s growing internal debate over AI risks, Gates cautioned against viewing the technology simply as a competition among companies or countries.
“It’s actually frightening that all our thinkers aren’t sitting down together and saying, ‘How do we want to shape this?’” he said.
