Bill Gates urges mandatory safeguards for AI systems

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates told NBC News' Meet the Press that it is "completely irresponsible" not to require safeguards and monitoring for AI systems, and he warned that the more urgent danger is bad actors using AI. Gates also voiced support for regulatory involvement and third-party evaluation.

Mandatory safeguards and industry oversight

In the interview Gates said, "it's completely irresponsible not to require every AI to have these safeguards and monitoring capabilities." He argued that law enforcement and elected officials should join discussions about what safeguards and monitoring AI companies should incorporate. Gates said bringing regulators into the conversation would add some overhead to the industry but would not cause a "dramatic slowing of what they're doing."

Kill switch proposal and the threat from malicious actors

California governor Gavin Newsom has proposed a so-called kill switch among other measures to address rapid AI development. When asked about that approach, Gates said, "I would never want to say that I'm against a kill switch," but added that such a mechanism would not address the more imminent risk. He emphasized that the primary near-term concern is "people with bad intent using AI." Gates warned, "There's never been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with ill intent using the latest AI tools," and specifically cited risks such as bioterrorism and large-scale financial fraud facilitated by AI.

Third-party evaluation and recent industry moves

The remarks followed a period in which several AI company CEOs signaled support for slowing the pace of development. Separately, Anthropic recently engaged Accenture to act as a third-party evaluator for its latest AI models, a step aligned with Gates's call for external monitoring and oversight.