Bill Gates warns AI might wipe out a billion people in a Terminator-style apocalypse
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has called for greater government oversight of artificial intelligence, urging the United States to take the lead in establishing safeguards
Bill Gates has shared his fears over artificial intelligence (Image: Getty Images)
Tech billionaire Bill Gates has warned AI could wipe out a billion humans in a Terminator-style apocalypse – saying there’s ‘never been a weapon as powerful … as people with ill intent using AI tools’.
The Microsoft co-founder has called for greater government oversight of the emerging tech, urging the United States to take the lead in establishing safeguards.
While China would create its own measures, Gates emphasised the US should establish clear standards for the industry.
He also warned AI could make it dangerously difficult to distinguish between scientists developing lifesaving medicines in future and bad actors seeking to create biological weapons for mass destruction.
Experts have brought fears of a Terminator-style apocalypse (Image: Canal Plus)
Gates said: “AI is certainly powerful enough to drive events that cause a billion deaths.
“So even though it’s pretty hard to get to 100% [of humanity dying at the hands of AI], there’s never been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with ill intent using the latest AI tools.”
He added: “I wish it was easier to distinguish good intent, like I want to design a new drug for a disease, versus negative intent, which is I want to design a tool of bioterrorism.”
But Gates also said creating safeguards would be a ‘very doable thing’.
He said: “You’ll hear from the industry, it’s a very doable thing. It would not slow them down dramatically.”
US President Donald Trump has railed against the idea that AI advances will mean the end of the human race.
When asked about it earlier this month, the leader said those were ‘things that won’t happen’.
He said: “We’re leading China in AI. We’re the most sophisticated country in the world and, frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI, wins.”
However, rival Democrat politicians are more keen to regulate emerging technologies.
Former Democratic President Barack Obama spoke about AI at an event earlier this month.
He said: “This is something that is moving very fast in private hands and if we don’t get on top of it, I think it can be dangerous.”
