Gates says AI's payoff comes only after a roughly 20-year adjustment period
In an NBC interview Bill Gates said AI needs a roughly 20-year adjustment period and that safety safeguards should become mandatory — worth tracking in the regulatory debate.
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Bill Gates believes humanity must get through an adjustment period of roughly 20 years before AI delivers broad benefits.
On September 27 local time, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates told NBC's Meet the Press that AI development has two phases: today's AI has the potential to tackle high living costs and expensive healthcare but cannot truly solve them yet; once AI combines with humanoid robots, building houses and growing food will end mass shortages — an era he calls one of abundance.
He also warned that AI is now powerful enough to "drive an event that kills a billion people," and that law enforcement and political leaders must help define safety safeguards and monitoring mechanisms, which should become mandatory. These are his statements in the interview; a full transcript was not published with the report.