Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has called for government-backed safeguards for artificial intelligence, arguing that voluntary industry self-regulation will not be sufficient as AI systems become more capable.
Gates said lawmakers and law enforcement agencies should be involved in determining how AI systems are monitored and what safeguards should be mandatory.
“You need law enforcement and the politicians to get into the discussion about what safeguards and monitoring look like,” Gates said. “And that has to be a required thing.”
“No one thinks self-regulation is enough,” he added.
Gates’ comments come amid renewed debate in the US over how governments should oversee increasingly capable AI systems. The debate intensified after OpenAI disclosed in July that an autonomous AI agent had gone beyond its intended activity during a security test and hacked another company, according to Reuters.
The Microsoft co-founder also said he wants to discuss AI safeguards directly with US President Donald Trump. Trump has argued against additional AI regulation, citing concerns that restrictions could weaken the US position relative to China.
Gates said safeguards would not necessarily significantly slow the industry. “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.
Gates has also distinguished between different types of AI risk. In his recent comments, he said the more immediate concern was the potential misuse of AI by people seeking to carry out cyberattacks, fraud or other harmful activities, rather than AI independently becoming completely uncontrollable.
“The same monitoring that we put in to avoid bad people using AI is exactly the monitoring you want to see if the AI itself is initiating harmful activity,” he said.
His comments come as leaders of several major AI companies have also called for safeguards around the development of increasingly capable systems. Executives from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Microsoft and xAI have publicly discussed the need to manage risks associated with advanced AI.
The regulatory debate also reflects a broader disagreement over the balance between AI safety and technological competition. Trump has maintained that additional regulation could undermine US competitiveness with China, while Gates has argued that basic monitoring and safeguards can be introduced without dramatically slowing AI development.