Bill Gates sounds alarm over AI's future if it gets in the wrong hands: 'We're not doing enough'

 'Just as we regulate planes, cars, and medicines, we need safeguards that help us realize AI's incredible potential while reducing the risks,' the Microsoft co-founder wrote on X. 

'They won’t eliminate every harm, but they can help prevent misuse by bad actors. We’re not where we need to be yet - and this deserves much more of our attention.'

CNN's Jake Tapper began by saying Gates had warned that AI could make it 'much easier for bad actors to develop deadly bioweapons.'

'You said the risk of having a bioterrorist attack is now fifty times the risk of a natural pandemic,' he continued, before asking Gates, 'how soon do you think that nightmare scenario could happen... and are our leaders doing enough to make sure that does not happen?'

'Well, no, we're not doing enough. The front that we'll probably see most dramatically in the next year is cyber attacks,' Gates said. 

'The real danger right now is not that AI's getting out of control, we need to work on that but that's years away in terms of the big impact that might have.'

'It's really bad people using AI.. particularly where you can take out all the safeguards... when you have bad people, no safeguards, and then the latest models - that's where over the next year... we are going to have a lot of negative surprises.' 

Tapper went on to ask the tech billionaire if he was 'falling into the trap of doomerism' after Gates' comments describing AI as 'the most dangerous thing ever that makes nuclear weapons look like nothing.'

Well, all responsible AI leaders - including Sam Atlman, including Dario Amode - they are telling the world, "this is very concerning,"' Gates responded.

He clarified that, while certain fears have been stoked to more dramatic and more unlikely scenarios, 'compared to cars or planes or drugs - all things that I think we're pleased that we have significant regulatory capability to try and keep people safe -  this is more dangerous than any of those.'

'There are some grim possibilities if we don't maintain control, and I do think the industry is doing its job to raise the alarm bell. 

'But this idea that if we're judicious, we can minimize these risks. Maybe that's not coming across, particularly because the government sometimes goes to the extreme of "let's not have any safeguards" or "let's completely stop this." 

'You know, finding that middle ground like we did with planes and cars and medicines. That we don't have a lot of sophistication right now, but I do believe that middle ground exists.'

Gates' latest warning over artificial intelligence follows a slew of AI experts and leaders issuing similar chilling sentiments as the technology continues to outsmart its creators.