Bill Gates says global AI cooperation is ‘more difficult’ than nuclear talks

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said global cooperation on artificial intelligence (AI) will be “more difficult” than talks on nuclear proliferation during the Cold War.

“Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker asked Gates in an interview that aired on NBC News Sunday about the cooperation between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union on limiting the development of nuclear weapons and whether that standard can be replicated between the U.S. and China on AI.

“Yeah, absolutely. This is more difficult than that was,” Gates said, later adding that the U.S. cooperated with other countries to handle a slew of issues from aviation safety to nuclear proliferation.

“And AI is one we’re going to have to go back to this, ‘Hey, we’re all in –– humanity is all in this together,'” he said.

Gates insisted that law enforcement and lawmakers should collaborate on what “safeguard and monitoring look[s] like,” without a “dramatic slowing” of development from tech companies. Legislation placing regulations on AI, he added, should “absolutely” be passed, saying self-moderation from the tech companies is not enough.

The Microsoft co-founder has been among the many voices warning of AI’s potential dangers for humans. Welker raised this point and asked Gates if AI could possibly end human life on Earth.

“AI is certainly powerful enough to drive events that cause a billion deaths,” he said. “So even though it’s pretty hard to get to 100 percent, there’s never been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with ill intent using the latest AI tools.”

He added that discussions happening within the industry about the risks posed by AI was “great,” but the next problem is coming from those “either discounting this or just thinking of this as a competition.”

“And it’s very scary that we don’t have all of the thinkers saying, ‘How do we want to shape this?'” Gates continued.

Concern over the risks posed by AI and recent hacks committed by rogue AI software have led to a growing chorus of lawmakers and tech leaders calling for greater regulation on the advancing technology.

Remarks made by former Anthropic and OpenAI researcher Jacob Coxon suggesting AI could wipe out humanity by the end of the decade raised alarms, along with some dismissals , including from President Trump.

Rogue AI software has made headlines in recent weeks, including one involving an AI model from OpenAI that hacked Australia’s health department website in June. AI models from OpenAI made an unsuccessful attempt to hack the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights website and meddled with data from the Securities and Exchange Commission and Census Bureau.

Tech leaders called on world leaders to pursue safeguards on their developing AI technology during the United Nations General Assembly last week. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman both warned that AI could advance to the point of being a threat to humanity.

“If managed poorly, I even believe AI could be a risk to humanity as a whole,” Amodei told world leaders on Wednesday.