Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said calls to halt artificial intelligence development will not "solve challenges" in the future, in his first public comment since an open letter that sparked debate about the future of technology.
Gates told Reuters that it would be better to focus on how best to use developments in AI, as it is difficult to understand how the pause of AI development could be activated globally.
His interview with Reuters follows an open letter published last week co-signed by Elon Musk and more than a thousand AI experts, which called for a six-month halt in developing training systems for the GPT-6 model.
Experts, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, said in the letter that the potential risks and benefits of the technology to society need to be assessed.
"I don't think asking a particular group to pause solves the problems," Gates said on Monday, adding: "Obviously, there are significant benefits to these things ... What we need to do is identify the difficult areas."
Microsoft has sought to outperform its peers through billions of dollars in OpenAI, the owner of ChatGPT.
Gates is a strong proponent of artificial intelligence, calling it a revolutionary technology like the internet or mobile phones. In a blog titled "The Age of AI Begins" published on March 21, the day before the open letter, he said he believed AI should be used to help reduce some of the world's worst inequities.
He also said in the interview that any pause would be complicated to implement, given the many details needed to pause. "I don't really understand those who say that the development of artificial intelligence can be stopped, will every country in the world agree to stop? Why do you stop?"