Bill Gates: shipping AI without safeguards is 'completely irresponsible'

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said it is "completely irresponsible not to require every AI to have these safeguards and monitoring capabilities," joining a growing group of technology leaders calling for tighter regulation of artificial intelligence.

Safeguards and monitoring

Gates made the remarks in an interview with NBC News' Meet the Press. His comments follow a series of public statements from AI company executives who have backed slowing the pace of development, including a three-step plan put forward by Anthropic's chief executive.

Some of that work is already under way inside the industry: Anthropic recently brought in Accenture to act as a third-party evaluator for its newest AI models.

The kill switch question

Asked about a proposal by California governor Gavin Newsom to give frontier AI models a "kill switch," Gates was careful. "I would never want to say that I'm against a kill switch," he said, but argued the measure would not address the most imminent danger.

In his view, the more pressing risk is bad actors who gain access to powerful AI tools, for example to help with bioterrorism or large-scale financial fraud.

People with bad intent

"The most dangerous thing we're facing right now is people with bad intent using AI," Gates said. "There's never been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with ill intent using the latest AI tools."

On legislation, Gates supported law enforcement and politicians joining the discussion about which safeguards and monitoring requirements AI companies should adopt. He acknowledged the approach would add some overhead to the industry, but said it would not cause a "dramatic slowing of what they're doing."