Bill Gates Suggests There Should Be Regulations on ‘Crazy Stuff’ Like Info that Makes People Not Want to Get a Vaccine

DREYER: “And I mean, you can definitely see the benefits of AI, but I think all of — all of us kind of have a fear of it as well. So it was interesting because some of the experts in that episode said we don’t even know how it figures out what it does sometimes, which is kind of scary. So do you think companies that are creating these technologies are doing enough to — to safeguard it for us?”
GATES: “Well, there’s certainly a lot of discussion about how it should be regulated, and the companies are saying, yes, the government needs to understand our work and needs to look at the right regulations. At the same time, you know, people saying, ‘OK, the U.S. wants to stay ahead.’ So whenever we talk about, ‘oh, can we slow it down?’ They’re like, ‘Well, don’t — don’t slow it down yet.’ [crosstalk] And so it’s going to be the most — the biggest change agent in the next 10 years. Mostly good stuff.
MELVIN: “Mostly.”
GATES: “But will we get it right? You know, social media — we’re still arguing about, ‘Hey, we shouldn’t have let young kids use it as much.’”
GREYER: “Right.”
GATES: “And how do you balance free speech and — versus crazy stuff —“
DREYER: “Mm-hmm.”
GATES: “— that, you know, got people not to take vaccines, for example.”
DREYER: “Right. Exactly.”
MELVIN: “And now the — the toothpaste is out of the tube, it seems like on social media. I want to just follow up on what you said there. How — how can lawmakers regulate AI or regulate social media, for that matter, when it — it seems that most of them don’t really understand it?”
GATES: “Well, they can, you know, create liability, you know, say AI’s giving health advice. They can say, ‘OK, if you make a mistake there, you’re going to be financially responsible.’”
MELVIN: “Yeah.”
GATES: “And so, you know, if — if it’s discriminatory, you can make them responsible. Because it’s happening so fast writing the rules is a bit of a challenge. And so we’re trying to encourage the people in government themselves to be users so they understand, ‘Wow, this is where it’s — it’s incredibly good. This is where it sometimes goes nuts.’”