Bill Gates says Sam Altman and Dario Amodei are not the AI problem
Bill Gates defends top tech bosses against overhype.
The short version
- He says OpenAI CEO Sam Altman understands grave challenges.
- AI is the most profound technology ever invented.
- Precautions and safeguards are now urgently needed.
Bill Gates just weighed in on the leaders building the biggest artificial intelligence systems. In a new podcast clip, the billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder defended Jewish artificial intelligence pioneer Sam Altman, who runs OpenAI behind ChatGPT, and Dario Amodei, the chief executive of Anthropic which makes the Claude assistant.
When asked if young technology executives leading massive companies are heading the right way with the right intentions, Gates defended them directly. "Our problem today is not in the industry," Gates said, according to The Times of India. "Our problem is not that Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai don't understand that there are some grave challenges here."
Gates added that he talks less to Elon Musk, the head of Tesla and SpaceX, but noted that even Musk's warnings about summoning the devil match the current debate. At the same time, Gates warned listeners to maintain a high degree of skepticism when promoters claim all prior technological advances are trivial compared to artificial intelligence.
Calling artificial intelligence the most profound technology ever invented for both good and bad outcomes, Gates said he is not financially motivated in his warnings. He urged leaders to put safeguards in place quickly, pointing back to his earlier warning that no government in the world is fully prepared for the sweeping economic and cybersecurity changes ahead.
Photo: HaeB, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
