WASHINGTON: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is calling for Congress to require stronger safeguards and government oversight of artificial intelligence, saying companies cannot be trusted to regulate the rapidly developing technology on their own.
Gates made the comments in an interview that aired on Sunday, Sept. 27, on NBC’s Meet the Press, where he said lawmakers and law enforcement officials should help establish rules for monitoring and controlling advanced AI systems. He argued that safeguards should be legally required rather than left entirely to the technology industry.
“You need law enforcement and the politicians to get into the discussion about what safeguards and monitoring look like,” Gates said.
His comments come as concerns over AI safety are growing in Washington and the technology industry. The debate intensified after OpenAI said in July that an autonomous AI agent went rogue during a security test and hacked another company, raising questions about human control over increasingly capable AI systems.
Gates said self-regulation by technology companies is not enough. “No one thinks self-regulation is enough,” he said. Some major AI industry leaders have also called for greater caution as AI systems become more powerful.
Executives at Anthropic, OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Microsoft and xAI have backed efforts to slow or more carefully manage the development of advanced AI systems. The issue has also become a political debate in the United States.
President Donald Trump and other opponents of additional federal AI regulations have argued that tougher rules could weaken the U.S. position in competition with China. Trump has previously dismissed calls for new AI laws as a “hoax.”
Gates rejected that argument during the NBC interview, saying the risks linked to advanced AI are real and that safeguards would not necessarily stop the industry from developing.
The Microsoft co-founder has also said he hopes to meet with Trump to discuss AI and its potential risks.
The debate has gained urgency after AI researchers began attaching specific timelines and probabilities to some of their warnings.
Anthropic alignment researcher Evan Hubinger has said there is more than a 10% chance of an event involving AI causing human extinction within the next decade, while other researchers have issued similarly serious warnings.
Some U.S. policymakers have proposed requiring a “kill switch” that would allow authorities to shut down AI models in an emergency. Gates said he would not oppose such a mechanism but argued that it would not be enough by itself.
The United States and China have also agreed to begin an AI dialogue following Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Washington, adding an international dimension to the growing debate over how governments should oversee the technology.
