Bill Gates: AI Now Capable of Enabling Destructive Biological and Cyber Attacks - Sarmad
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates warned that artificial intelligence has enabled a biological terrorist to kill hundreds of millions, calling for binding regulatory safeguards.
He said the ability to launch a cyberattack that wipes out all bank accounts and disrupts the power grid “is already here today, and we know that it is.” He attributed this to the fact that “anyone with malicious intent can use AI and push it to carry out these actions.”
Gates added that awareness of AI risks outside the industry “is extremely low.” He clarified that this applies equally to academia, think tanks, policymakers, and politicians.
He noted that part of the reason he is raising his voice “as loud as I can” is that “this industry cannot be relied upon to self-regulate on this issue. I mean, that’s madness.”
Gates asked: “Do we wait until a cyberattack causes serious damage and a biological attack causes serious damage, before imposing regulatory safeguards on these models to reduce the likelihood of it happening again and again? Or can we be wise enough to put these safeguards in place, and mandate their implementation, before millions of deaths occur?”
Gates made these remarks on “The Ezra Klein Show,” stating that AI had already crossed the cyber and biological thresholds earlier this year. He cited models that detect security vulnerabilities in code that humans have reviewed for more than 20 years, adding that the ability to design a new pathogen was once the exclusive domain of states but is now within reach of small groups.
Gates called for a supervisory layer of safeguards and oversight across all AI models. He proposed keeping open-source models free and customizable, provided they run on platforms that allow governments to verify that safeguards remain in place. Conversely, he believed that Anthropic had set the filters for its “Metho” and “Vep” models too high.
Earlier, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Gates had warned that AI could cause a billion deaths.
