Gates warns AI-powered cyberattacks could surge over the nex

Bill Gates warns that AI-powered cyberattacks could surge over the coming year, saying malicious actors exploiting advanced models without safeguards pose an immediate threat. He calls for stronger restrictions to prevent cyberattacks and bioterrorism, rejecting reliance on corporate self-regulation CALIFORNIA: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on Sunday warned that the risks posed by unregulated artificial intelligence (AI) were growing, predicting a surge in AI-powered cyberattacks over the coming year and calling for stronger safeguards against the technology's misuse. Gates said the prospect of AI 'getting out of control' remained years away from having a major impact, arguing that the more immediate threat came from malicious actors exploiting existing AI systems, particularly when their safeguards were removed. 'The front that we'll probably see most dramatically in the next year is cyberattacks,' Gates said in an interview with ABC News. 'The real danger right now is not the 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,' he said. 'It's really bad people using AI, particularly in AI where you can take out all the safeguards,' Gates added, stressing the need for tighter restrictions to prevent malicious actors from exploiting AI for bioterrorism and cyberattacks. He warned that the combination of advanced AI models, malicious users and the removal of safeguards could produce serious and unexpected consequences in the near future. 'But right now, you're allowed to take all those safeguards out. So when you have bad people, no safeguards, and then the latest models, that's where, over the next year, primarily in the cyber area, we are going to have a lot of negative surprises,' he told ABC News. Gates, who warned in a lengthy post in August that the world was dangerously unprepared for the upheaval driven by AI, particularly its potential impact on employment, is the latest prominent technology figure to raise concerns about the risks associated with the rapidly advancing technology. In Sunday's interview, he also rejected the argument, advocated by US President Donald Trump, that voluntary self-regulation by AI companies was sufficient to protect society from the technology's dangers. 'The idea that for the most dangerous technology humans ever invented, that that's the final word, that just the companies themselves are the only check that society has...it's clear we're not doing enough,' Gates said.