In an interview with “Tech Times,” Bill Gates argues AI companies cannot be expected to regulate themselves.

MICROSOFT CO-FOUNDER BILL GATES: They’re not experts on biosecurity. They’re hiring in people and all that, but that’s not their responsibility. You know, we have a gigantic government budget and, you know, which has had deep expertise on, you know, biosecurity and cyber. And, you know, we really need to activate that. Again, I don’t, the flaw in this picture is not that the companies aren’t concerned or, you know, that they’re not thoughtful about these issues. And I can only speak to the four that the foundation is deeply engaged in. That’s not the flaw. The flaw is that the safeguards, which are going to be democratically determined, but not, you know, just a knee-jerk thing, rather deep policy thinkers, you know, saying, okay, does the token tax make sense? How would it work? You know, kids shouldn’t be banned from using AI, but what are the boundaries that will make it a net positive where it’s helping their curiosity and giving them feedback, but not retarding the challenges of social development? You know, that’s way outside what these companies are focused on. They’re going, you know, very quickly and amazingly in terms of the depths of the models. And so, you know, where is society engaging on this? It’s not the role of the industry to self-regulate or understand the whole of society impact that comes out of AI. KATIE PRESCOTT, TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS EDITOR, THE TECH TIMES: And you’ve talked about the creation of some sort of international organisation to manage AI’s use and monitor AI, and the importance of getting the US and China involved in that. Have you got a sense of where the leadership for something like that should come from, how it should emerge? GATES: Well, since World War II, the US has often been a benign leader of global initiatives. You know, whether it’s the creation of the UN itself with others, you know, thinking about nuclear weapons or ozone layer or aviation safety. And so here, you know, if people see this as important as I do, the capacity of the US government to work domestically and in a friendly way, reach out to others, you know, and see what they’re doing. PRESCOTT: This doesn’t feel that’s the way the administration is going. GATES: The depth of understanding of AI and the right concern about some of these bad things is too low in every entity, including the government, other than the industry itself.

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