Bill Gates calls for federal AI law, says self-regulation is not enough

Bill Gates said AI companies cannot be left to regulate themselves and backed federal legislation, warning that AI in the hands of people with ill intent is powerful enough to drive events causing a billion deaths.

Bill Gates said the United States needs a federal law on artificial intelligence, arguing that the industry cannot police itself. “No one thinks self-regulation is enough. You need law enforcement and the politicians to get into the discussion about what safeguards and monitoring look like,” the Microsoft co-founder told NBC’s “Meet the Press,” answering “Absolutely” when asked whether Washington should pass legislation.

Gates framed the main threat as human misuse rather than machines acting on their own. “There’s never been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with ill intent using the latest AI tools,” he said, adding that AI is “certainly powerful enough to drive events that, you know, cause a billion deaths.”

He said building a US-China framework on AI safety would be even harder than Cold War nuclear negotiations, but pointed to past international agreements on aviation safety and the ozone layer as models. Gates also repeated his view that AI “will either be the greatest equalizer ever invented or the worst source of injustice.”