Gates spoke after attending a United States Senate ‘AI Insight Forum,’ held on Wednesday in the Capitol Hill, Washington DC, US.
He labelled AI as a ‘limitless’ technology, adding that, to reach its full potential, regulation is imperative to maximise its benefits and reduce its risks.
He said, “The potential of AI is limitless — but we will only realise that potential if government, the private sector and civil society work together to maximise the technology’s benefits and minimise its risks.”
The co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation stated that technological innovations are controlled whenever they pose threats.
“This is not the first time a major innovation has introduced new threats that had to be controlled. We’ve done it before.
“Whether it was the introduction of cars or the rise of personal computers and the Internet, people have managed through other transformative moments and, despite a lot of turbulence, come out better off in the end.
“Soon after the first automobiles were on the road, there was the first car crash. But we didn’t ban cars—we adopted speed limits, safety standards, licensing requirements, drunk-driving laws, and other rules of the road.”
He also urged private-sector AI companies to pursue their work safely and responsibly.
Some of the regulations suggested by Gates include “protecting people’s privacy, making sure their AI models reflect basic human values, minimising bias, spreading the benefits to as many people as possible, and preventing the technology from being used by criminals or terrorists.”
The Chairman of the United Kingdom’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency,Matt Clifford said, “There’s an enormous upside from this technology, but it’s essential that the world invests heavily and urgently in AI safety and control,” BBC reports.
Some of the attendees at the forum are Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter), Google’s Sundar Pichai, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, and Sam Altman from OpenAI.
