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The Microsoft co-founder says governments need new domestic and international bodies to regulate AI before it causes irreversible harm.
Bill Gates is urging governments to act more quickly to regulate artificial intelligence, saying technology companies are downplaying risks to humanity, Bloomberg reported.
In an essay published on his personal website, the Microsoft co-founder said AI is advancing faster than he expected and that the technology industry has moved away from the caution it once showed.
Gates identified three key challenges: the effect of AI on jobs, its potential to help people cause greater harm, including by building bioweapons and computer viruses, and damage to human relationships and childhood development.
He said regulation will require new institutions at the national and international levels. Gates pointed to nuclear weapons inspections, aviation rules and efforts to protect the ozone layer as possible models for global cooperation.
“AI will either be the greatest equalizer ever invented, or the worst source of injustice,” Gates wrote, while warning that the transition to the technology could be among the most turbulent periods in history.
Gates left Microsoft’s board in 2020.
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