Former Microsoft chief executive Bill Gates said artificial intelligence could be powerful enough to cause mass devastation for the human race — reflecting the tech mogul’s recent shift to being worried about the technology’s potential impacts.
“AI is certainly powerful enough to drive events that, you know, cause a billion deaths,” Gates said on Sunday’s edition of NBC News’s “Meet the Press With Kristin Welker,” in response to a question about whether the technology could end humanity. “So even though it’s pretty hard to get to 100 percent, there’s never been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with ill intent using the latest AI tools.”
Gates added that he welcomed the recent discussion within the tech industry about the potential dangers of AI. “The problem is that the rest of the world is either discounting this or just thinking of this as a competition,” he said.
Gates had historically been optimistic that AI would make the world a better place by fighting disease and improving people’s lives. But in an essay in August, he said he was now worried that AI would do more harm than good.
“I’m surprised to feel this way,” Gates told The Washington Post at the time. “I’ve never seen a problem that innovation can’t solve.”
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