'AI Powerful Enough To Enable A Billion Deaths': Bill Gates Calls For Mandatory Safeguards

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has urged US lawmakers to regulate artificial intelligence (AI), warning that the technology could be used to cause mass casualties.

He made the remarks in an interview with NBC News' 'Meet the Press'. Asked by moderator Kristen Welker whether Congress needs to pass AI legislation, Gates said yes, arguing that self-regulation by AI companies is not sufficient. He said law enforcement and politicians must join the discussion on what safeguards and monitoring should look like, and that these should be mandatory. Gates said such rules would add some overhead for the industry but would not dramatically slow development.

The billion-deaths warning

Gates said AI is already powerful enough to help drive events that could cause 'a billion deaths'. He said no weapon in history has matched the combination of people with bad intentions using current AI tools. Gates did not predict that such deaths will happen. His point was that the technology could enable an event of that scale, which is why oversight matters as capabilities grow.

Kill switch not enough

Gates pushed back on the focus on emergency shutdown mechanisms, arguing they do not address threats such as cyberattacks, financial fraud and bioweapons development by bad actors.

Industry and government divided

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has backed regulation covering major frontier AI companies, while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has called for international standards on risk assessments, safeguards and human oversight. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly argued that companies should handle safety internally.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has declined to recall lawmakers to pass AI legislation, and Trump has called demands for AI regulation a hoax. Microsoft President Brad Smith has also criticised the race among AI companies, saying safety should come first.