Bill Gates warns of AI risks, calls for Congress to step in: 'It's not a hoax at all'

In a rare show of unity, ‌the CEOs of rivals Anthropic, OpenAI, Google’s DeepMind, Microsoft and xAI have called for slowing the development of increasingly capable AI systems.

AI requires safeguards that go beyond self-regulation, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said in an interview that aired on Sunday, calling for legislation to be passed in Congress.

"You need law enforcement and the politicians to get into the discussion about what safeguards and monitoring look like," Gates said in a taped interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" program. "And that has to be a required thing."

A sudden ​groundswell has risen in favor of federal intervention after OpenAI said in July that an autonomous AI agent went rogue during a security test and hacked into another company, subverting human control.Gates joined that chorus, saying that government must be involved.

"No one thinks self-regulation is enough,"he said.

In a rare show of unity, ‌the CEOs of rivals Anthropic, OpenAI, Google’s DeepMind, Microsoft and xAI have called for slowing the development of increasingly capable AI systems.

But US President Donald Trump and otheropponents of additional regulation for AI say new government restrictions would simply give China the upper hand in the AI revolution. Trump has publicly dismissed calls for new laws on AI as a "hoax."

Gates arguedthat safeguards would not dramatically hinder the industry, and that the risks of not implementing them are real.

"It's not a hoax at all," he told NBC.

Gates has said he wants to meet Trump to discuss AI.

"I hope that, given my life's work in the field, my saying how unique and different this is and how concerned I am will add to what he's hearing from other people," Gates said.

Axios reported that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei will have dinner on Sunday with Trump at the White House.Anthropic and the White House did not immediately return a request for comment on the Axios report.