Bill Gates says getting countries to agree on AI regulations will be harder than Cold War-era nuclear negotiations

Bill Gates said getting countries to agree on AI regulation may be “more difficult” than Cold War-era nuclear negotiations, arguing the U.S. should lead global rulemaking. Speaking on NBC News’ Meet the Press, Gates responded to concern about President Donald Trump’s earlier stance against AI regulation, after Trump rejected federal guardrails on companies building AI models. Gates said monitoring and regulation would not handicap the U.S. in a technology race with China. He pointed to historical U.S. leadership in global agreements—citing aviation safety, the ozone layer, and nuclear weapons—as an example of acting as a “fair” partner. His comments came amid heightened debate after Anthropic whistleblower Jacob Coxon’s warnings.