AI is certainly powerful enough to drive events that, you know, cause a billion deaths. You know, so even though it’s pretty hard to get to 100%, there’s never been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with ill intent using the latest AI tools
In Wednesday’s interview, Gates didn’t downplay the risk that AI could wipe out humanity in several years, but called for Americans not to ignore the risks that AI could be used by bad actors to cause large-scale harm as soon as today.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., declined to bring House lawmakers back to Washington to pass legislation to regulate the pace of AI growth, saying that he would defer to the AI companies.
While some researchers have warned that AI could eventually threaten humanity's survival, Gates focused on the immediate danger of powerful AI tools falling into the hands of bad actors capable of causing catastrophic harm.
In fuller excerpts of the interview, Gates framed the danger around people deliberately using increasingly capable AI systems rather than predicting that an autonomous machine would independently decide to destroy humanity.
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