Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said on Sunday that artificial intelligence has become powerful enough to be exploited in ways that could lead to as many as a billion deaths, and called on the U.S. Congress to pass binding safeguards rather than rely on the technology industry to police itself.
Gates made the remarks in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” excerpts of which were released earlier in the week. He said no serious observer believes voluntary measures by AI developers are adequate, and argued that malicious actors, rather than only runaway systems, represent an immediate danger. He described the absence of safeguards and monitoring as irresponsible, and said governments, law enforcement and elected officials all need a role in oversight.
Gates rejected the argument, advanced by President Donald Trump and other opponents of new rules, that tighter regulation would hand China an advantage in AI development. He said other countries are either underestimating the risk or treating AI purely as a competitive race, and that Washington should prioritize legislation over rivalry concerns. He stopped short of endorsing a pause in AI development but said lawmakers must move faster, and added that regulating advanced AI may prove harder than Cold War arms control because the technology is widely accessible and driven largely by private companies.
The comments arrive amid an intensifying policy debate in Washington. Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei has publicly called for the industry to slow the pace of frontier development and for stronger government involvement in AI safety, and Microsoft President Brad Smith told a United Nations session this week that companies need not wait for federal action before slowing their own efforts. Congressional leaders have yet to advance major federal AI legislation, while several U.S. states have moved ahead with their own oversight measures, including executive actions in Maryland and New York.
Trump has resisted additional guardrails, though some Republicans have urged government action. Gates said he intends to keep pressing governments to adopt mandatory safeguards and has expressed interest in meeting Trump to discuss the issue. Axios reported that Amodei was due to dine with Trump at the White House on Sunday, and a separate meeting involving Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and AI executives is planned, though its agenda has not been disclosed.
