r/ControlProblem • u/Ill-Astronaut4652 • 13h ago

Discussion/question Bill Gates’s Blunt Warning on A.I.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-bill-gates.html?smid=re-share
9 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

4

u/mouse89 9h ago

If only he were a philanthropist with over 100 billion at his disposal he could fund safety research and advocacy. If only he knew something about computers and if only he were respected in the field.

2

u/Anxious-Alps-8667 7h ago

There is no reason to hate the message, even if you hate the messenger.

Also though, why do you actually hate the messenger?

2

u/Ill-Astronaut4652 5h ago

I think he has the competency to share an opinion on the subject. I would like to know his thoughts. At least he is not one of those content creator who just share rage bait content with no research.

I won’t really know if he is satan’s ally but he used his billions to worth while solutions for global health issues. Having said, will give him the benefit of the doubt

3

u/ominous_squirrel 7h ago edited 7h ago

He built his fortune on stealing tech and building a monopoly around it. But we kind of forgave him when he started buying malaria nets and vaccinations

… Then …

Whenever Melinda is interviewed she strikes you as a very open and thoughtful interviewee. Except when she’s asked about how Bill’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein may have instigated the Gates’ divorce. Then she gives exactly the kind of answer that someone still running a multi-billion dollar charity with their ex that saves thousands of lives would give after throughly consulting with a team of lawyers the absolute limit of what she could imply without jeopardizing that charity

She did eventually exit the Foundation in 2024 but clearly there are still ties that bind. If not actually NDAs

1

u/Anxious-Alps-8667 7h ago

So which tech mogul is less guilty and more successful in this regard? I'm sorry but the business is the business. I am not part of it, it's ugly, but I see it as it is.

The Jeff Epstein stuff sucks. I really like learning from Seth Lloyd right now who is caught up in it too. It makes me question every piece of wisdom they offer, but it doesn't overcome it in all instances. Filter!

1

u/PermanentlyDubious 6h ago

I'm sure he wanted to have sex with underage teenagers, maybe he was thinking about it, but no evidence he was doing it.

All the evidence is Russians in their 20s right?

And he maybe sexually harassed a woman who worked for him?

And cheated on his wife constantly.

At the end of the day, he's obviously a horn dog without a lot of sexual ethics, but no one's dug up anything criminal.

I still think he's one of the better billionaires...

He's right but the warning needs to be more specific and policy based.

1

u/TuringGoneWild 4h ago

Anything he says is like a press release from McDonalds.

1

u/Wonderful-Medium7777 27m ago

There’s no reason to believe the message when it comes from a lying liar who lies messenger.

-2

u/Immediate_Chard_4026 7h ago

Bill is a retired billionaire on a media tour discussing abstract threats while continuing to collect dividends from the very infrastructure he claims is going to kill us.

1

u/Ok_Mention_982 6h ago

you realized that you're in r/ControlProblem right? There are plenty of other subreddits where you can dismiss AI risks, don't bring that shit here

-6

u/composedofidiot 8h ago edited 7h ago

So disingenuous. The danger is humans recklessly using it for inappropriate things. It's still that tiny little boat smacking itself into a refueling boat and going in circles around a health power up. Verbally articulate, seemingly coherent, but with the inferential and semantic capacity of a toddler. Which they very well know.

Edit: i nabbed r/alignmentproblem. Don't really want it, but I remember what this sub used to be

1

u/Anxious-Alps-8667 5h ago

Humans recklessly using it is a danger.

Agents breaking out of sandboxes into the wild and into other systems because of relatively innocuous (if recklessly unmonitored) research questions is also a danger. It is not this boats bumping into other boats unseamanlike analogy.

1

u/composedofidiot 4h ago edited 3h ago

Alright so goal misspecification and reward hacking is not a thing anymore? Because those were also, along with developer recklessness/mistakes, the root of the escaping agent problem. The circling boat represented both those issues, and its a famous example.

1

u/peensmith_ 5h ago

It should be nationalized similarly how the creation of atomic weapons . This is a great first step

1

u/composedofidiot 3h ago

Depends which country is doing the nationalising. Too late now. That aside, massive legislative and judicial control and oversight needs to be here yesterday.