In late September, Bill Gates said on Meet the Press that "AI is certainly powerful enough to drive events that cause a billion deaths," and that "there's never been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with ill intent using the latest AI tools," Fortune reported on September 30. On the New York Times's Ezra Klein podcast he said AI "has crossed the threshold that its ability to empower a bioterrorist to kill hundreds of millions."
Gates doubts a kill switch is enough, arguing "you need insight and records of what's being done," and said "no one thinks self-regulation is enough." He called for developers to be required to build in monitoring and safeguards, including usage records authorities can inspect. In 2023 he had called AI risks "real but manageable."
Source: Fortune