Bill Gates: The risk is AI misuse, not AI escaping our control

Billionaire and Microsoft leader Bill Gates estimates that the most urgent concern about artificial intelligence is its use by people with malicious intent, not the possibility that it might act independently and slip fully out of control.

According to him, focusing on catastrophic scenarios risks diverting attention from closer, more concrete problems.

“We worry about things far less extreme than the ultimate disaster scenario, and I fear that this very scenario is distracting people,” Gates said in an interview with American media.

He stressed that, in his assessment, there is currently no risk that these artificial intelligence systems might slip fully out of control.

“The urgent issue is about malicious people using AI, not about AI acting on its own,” he declared.

Still, Gates acknowledged that loss-of-control incidents have also had a positive effect, drawing the public’s attention to artificial intelligence.

“In a sense, I would say it’s good that these loss-of-control incidents have made people focus on AI, even though this is not the immediate risk,” he said.