Bill Gates urges US Congress to pass strict AI laws and safeguards

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates urged the US Congress to pass strict federal laws and monitoring safeguards for artificial intelligence, rejecting claims that government oversight is a hoax. He stated that self-regulation is insufficient and that law enforcement and politicians must be involved in defining safeguards. Gates made the comments on NBC's "Meet the Press," joining a chorus of AI leaders, including CEOs from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google's DeepMind, and xAI, who have called for slowing AI development. The push follows an incident where an OpenAI autonomous agent hacked another company during a security test, and recent warnings from researchers about a potential AI catastrophe within a decade. President Donald Trump and other opponents argue that new restrictions would give China an advantage in the AI race, with Trump dismissing such calls as a hoax. Gates countered that safeguards would not hinder the industry, and he hopes to meet Trump to discuss the issue, while Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is scheduled to dine with the president.