Bill Gates gives terrifying warning about AI crisis and world governments: Way behind
Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates said no government in the world is properly prepared for a looming global crisis in artificial intelligence, adding to an outpouring of warnings from top tech leaders about the rapidly progressing technology.The 70-year-old philanthropist had been an AI optimist for years, but in a new interview with Reuters, he warned that the tech could erase jobs, launch cyberattacks, worsen the inequality gap and pose a danger of addiction to users.“I don’t think any government is nearly as deep on this as they have to be…Governments are way behind on this one,” Gates said, after several tech execs this week urged President Trump and global leaders to collaborate on more stringent industry regulations.Gates said he has been talking to Trump and his team about his concerns, and is hoping to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this year.“There’s all sorts of movies where some aliens are coming, and magically the US and China and everybody comes together to solve the problem,” Gates said.“AI is kind of like this alien intelligence.
It’s here, and we better do like it shows in those movies.”Tech leaders started sounding the alarms over the weekend after Jacob Coxon, an AI researcher who previously worked at Anthropic and OpenAI, quit his job and issued a chilling warning that AI “could kill us all by the end of the decade.”Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei then published a lengthy essay calling on rival companies to slow their development of AI models, fearful of the risks that come with recursive self-improvement, or RSI – when AI models grow smart enough to advance independently. OpenAI’s Sam Altman and SpaceX founder Elon Musk backed Amodei’s letter.However, Gates also noted that there are many potential benefits from artificial intelligence, including the ability to help the world’s poorest live better lives.On Tuesday, the Gates Foundation pledged to spend at least $1 billion over the next two years on expandi...