Despite being the undisputed leader in the AI space at the moment, Microsoft’s Chief Economist is warning the technology “will cause real damage.”

Michael Schwarz was speaking at a World Economic Forum panel in Geneva, according to Bloomberg, and made the following statement:

“I am confident AI will be used by bad actors, and yes it will cause real damage. It can do a lot damage in the hands of spammers with elections and so on.”

Schwarz went on to say that he believed AI needed to be regulated but said lawmakers should tread carefully and wait to see what damage it causes to better understand how to regulate it effectively.

“Once we see real harm, we have to ask ourselves the simple question: ‘Can we regulate that in a way where the good things that will be prevented by this regulation are less important?’” Schwarz said. “The principles should be, the benefits from the regulation to our society should be greater than the cost to our society.”

Concerns regarding AI’s future have been growing, with Google’s “Godfather of AI” recently quitting the company and expressing regret over his life’s work. Dr. Geoffrey Hinton expressed similar, and much more dire, concerns as Schwarz.

“It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things,” Dr. Hinton said.