Bill Gates Says A.I. Could Kill At Least A Billion People

Bill Gates is not holding back in his bleak prediction about the future of A.I. ... and is claiming that the technology has the capability to eventually kill a billion people.

During Sunday's episode of "Meet the Press" ... he told host Kristen Welker that if its powers are abused and unchecked, A.I. could perform dangerous actions that result in a death toll in the 10 figures.

He admitted ... "A.I. is certainly powerful enough to drive events that cause a billion deaths. So even though it’s pretty hard to get to 100%, there’s never been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with ill intent using the latest A.I. tools."

He added ... "I wish it was easier to distinguish good intent, like I want to design a new drug for a disease, versus negative intent, which is I want to design a tool of bioterrorism."

Bill's comments -- which include a plea for lawmakers to regulate the new technology -- come amid a flurry of concern about the future of A.I. in the past month.

This conversation comes weeks after A.I. whistleblower Jacob Coxon came forward warning there was a 10% chance of an A.I.-caused apocalypse ... shortly before OpenAI revealed several alarming instances of the technology's hacking capabilities -- and Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced a bill to ban of all artificial superintelligence.