The remarks came after Donald Trump again voiced his stance against slowing AI development, writing on Truth Social: “WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS! We are leading China, and all others, and will continue to do so.”
In an interview that aired earlier on Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, Mr Gates, 70, who has an estimated $115bn fortune, said he would like to meet with Mr Trump to discuss AI.
Mr Gates said regulating AI companies by putting in place monitoring systems would not hinder the US in any battle with China for technological supremacy in this field.
“What he said is fine, but I think after he hears from me and other people, including that this does not handicap us in whatever he thinks the nation-state race is, that, you know, we will come to a consensus,” said the philanthropist and world’s 17th richest person, according to Forbes.
Mr Gates later noted other occasions when the US has been world leader in creating broad agreements to protect humanity.
“Since World War Two, the US should be very proud that when there have been global challenges, we, in a way that was benign, where we had friends and allies coming along with us, you know, aviation safety, ozone layer, nuclear weapons, a lot of things where we played the fair actor, not aggrandising whatever our unique strengths were,” he told NBC.
“And AI is one we’re going to have to go back to this, ‘Hey, humanity is all in this together’.”
Mr Trump holds an opposing view on AI development, claiming any efforts to limit the technology are part of a “SICK conspiracy”.
“AI taking over the World, destroying Humanity, and all other things bad, is a HOAX,” the US president posted on social media earlier this month.
But Mr Gates argues that safeguards would not substantially hamper the industry, and that the risks of not implementing them are real.
“It’s not a hoax at all,” Mr Gates told NBC.
“I hope that, given my life’s work in the field, my saying how unique and different this is and how concerned I am will add to what he’s hearing from other people,” Mr Gates said, echoing calls by Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei and others for new AI regulations.
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Earlier in September, former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon warned that AI could wipe out humanity by the end of the decade, prompting US lawmakers to call for new rules to govern the technology.
Evan Hubinger, Anthropic’s alignment science lead, echoed Mr Coxon’s warning, saying there is more than a 10% risk of such an event happening within the next decade.
In his NBC interview, Mr Gates expressed similar concerns, saying that “AI is certainly powerful enough to drive events that cause a billion deaths”.
“There has never been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with ill intent using the latest AI tools,” he added.
Mr Trump has shown little interest in regulating AI, a major driver of recent US economic growth.
The US president yesterday confirmed that he plans to have a dinner meeting with Anthropic’s CEO on Sunday night.
He also reiterated his belief that new regulations would allow China the opportunity to outpace the US in AI advancement.
Although he acknowledged Mr Amodei’s concern that rapid artificial intelligence development could increase risks, Mr Trump said it’s more important for the US to sustain its technological advantage over China.
“We’re about maybe a year and a half up on China,” Trump told Fox News while attending the Presidents Cup golf tournament in Illinois.
The confirmation of the meeting comes as the CEOs of Anthropic rivals have called for slowing development of increasingly capable AI systems.
These include: OpenAI, Google (GOOGL.O), DeepMind, Microsoft (MSFT.O), and xAI.
