Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates anticipates that artificial intelligence (AI) will bring about a transformation for everyone within the next five years. The emergence of AI has raised concerns that technology will eliminate millions of jobs worldwide, with the International Monetary Fund stating this week that around 40% of jobs globally may be impacted by the advent of AI.
While Gates doesn’t necessarily disagree with this idea, he believes that history shows with every new technology, there comes fear and then new opportunities. Gates stated, “As with agricultural productivity in 1900, people said, ‘What will people do?’ In fact, lots of new things were created, many new categories of jobs, and we became much better off.” He added, “AI will be like that.”
In an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Tuesday, Gates predicted that artificial intelligence would make everyone’s life easier, specifically mentioning assisting doctors in handling paperwork, a “part of the job they don’t like, and we can make it very efficient,” according to Arab Business.
Due to no need for “a lot of new hardware,” Gates said access to artificial intelligence would be through “your phone or your personal computer that you’ve already hooked up to the internet.”
He also noted that the improvements made to OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4 were “exciting” because it can “essentially read and write,” making it “almost like having a white-collar worker to be a teacher, give health advice, help write code, assist in technical support calls.” He stated that integrating this technology into the education or medical sectors would be “great.”
Microsoft has a multi-billion-dollar partnership with OpenAI, and Gates remains one of the largest contributors to Microsoft.
Gates told CNN at Davos during the World Economic Forum, “The Gates Foundation’s goal is to make sure that the delay between benefiting people in poor countries and reaching rich countries is very short.” He added, “After all, the shortage of doctors and teachers is much more acute in Africa than it is in the West.”
However, the International Monetary Fund, in its report this week, had a much less optimistic view. The international organization stated that artificial intelligence could deepen inequality without political intervention.
Gates’ wealth is $140 billion, making him the fourth-richest person on earth, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. However, he is likely to remain the richest person in the world if he doesn’t commit to donating all of his money.
During the dialogue, Gates affirmed, “I have enough money for my own consumption.” He said, “I will force myself to go down the list, and I’ll be proud when I’m completely dropped from the list of the richest billionaires.”
The co-founder of Microsoft and his former wife, Melinda French Gates, pledged to donate the vast majority of their wealth to the foundation they established together 20 years ago, in addition to other charitable endeavors.
In 2022, Gates announced the foundation’s intention to donate $9 billion annually by 2026. He stated that he is “excited that it will have a big impact” on the organizations he donates to. He added that he and partners like Warren Buffett have donated about $100 billion to his foundation. At a rate of $9 billion annually, Gates expects to give away all of his money in about 20 years.
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