Bill Gates warns cyberattacks most imminent AI threat

"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," he said, adding that increased restrictions were needed to prevent bad actors using AI for bioterrorism and cyberattacks. Read More:Anthropic discloses fake tip to police among new rogue AI incidents"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.

Gates -- who warned in a lengthy August post that the world was dangerously unprepared for the upheaval brought by AI, especially to employment -- is the latest tech magnate to sound the alarm on the threats posed by the new technology.

In his interview Sunday, he dismissed the idea -- advocated by US President Donald Trump -- that self-regulation by AI companies was sufficient to keep the world safe.

"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.