Tech billionaire Bill Gates warned that artificial intelligence had the potential to kill a billion people in the wrong hands — as he joined the call to put safety restrictions on the technology.
The Microsoft co-founder called for greater government oversight on AI during a talk with NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, where he suggested AI could be abused and lead to humanity’s near extinction.
“AI is certainly powerful enough to drive events that cause a billion deaths,” he warned.
“So even though it’s pretty hard to get to 100% [of humanity], there’s never been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with ill intent using the latest AI tools,” he added.
