Key facts
- Bill Gates believes global AI regulation talks are more difficult than Cold War nuclear negotiations.
- Gates stated that AI regulation would not handicap the U.S. in its race with China.
- He cited aviation safety, the ozone layer, and nuclear weapons as areas where the U.S. has led global agreements.
- Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon warned that AI could cause significant harm by the end of the decade.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said Sunday that agreeing on a global framework to regulate artificial intelligence may be "more difficult" than talks to rein in nuclear weapons during the Cold War.
"This is more difficult than that was," Gates told NBC News' Meet the Press in a recorded interview aired Sunday. His remarks followed U.S. President Donald Trump's rejection earlier this month of calls for the federal government to regulate AI companies, with Trump posting on social media, "WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS! We are leading China, and all others, and will continue to do so."
According to Gates, imposing monitoring systems on AI companies would not impede the U.S. in its race with China to develop the technology. "What he said is fine, but I think after he hears from me and other people, including that this does not handicap us in whatever he thinks the nation-state race is, that, you know, we will come to a consensus," he said.
Gates pointed to other instances where the United States led drives to find agreement to benefit the world. "Since World War II, the U.S. should be very proud that when there have been global challenges, we, in a way that was benign, where we had friends and allies coming along with us, you know, aviation safety, ozone layer, nuclear weapons, a lot of things where we played the fair actor, not aggrandizing whatever our unique strengths were," he told NBC News. "And AI is one we're going to have to go back to this, 'Hey, humanity is all in this together.'"
Concerns over AI spiked in recent weeks after former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon warned that AI "could kill us all by the end of the decade."