Bill Gates: Artificial intelligence could cause the deaths of a billion people

Bill Gates warned that artificial intelligence could cause the deaths of a billion people and, gradually, wipe out humanity. In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press”, set to air Sunday, Gates said artificial intelligence now has such power that it could trigger events with massive loss of human life.

“Artificial intelligence is certainly powerful enough to lead to events that, as you know, cause the deaths of a billion people,” he says in an excerpt from the interview published today by NBC.

Gates also notes that, while it is extraordinarily difficult to reach 100% probability, “there has never been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with bad intentions and the most advanced artificial intelligence tools.” Just a month ago, Gates described artificial intelligence as a technology with a bigger impact than almost any other in history, and argued that AI could be either the greatest or “the worst source of injustice”.

Gates has stressed that artificial intelligence could bring major changes to jobs, healthcare, the economy and society, but he considers it essential to create control frameworks to limit the risks.

He argues that governments and political parties must work together immediately to find ways to prevent artificial intelligence from developing into a force that escapes human control.