When It Comes to Tech, Bill Gates Is More Impressed With A.I. Than Web3
Mark Zuckerberg might tout nonstop how the metaverse is the future, but Bill Gates isn’t so impressed. Gates hasn’t coded in years, but as a pioneer of the internet, his opinions still hold more weight, and according to Gates, the future is AI—not web3.
During one of his many Reddit Ask Me Anything sessions, Gates shared that while web3 has potential, it’s not the “revolutionary” innovation that AI promises to be. Over the last few weeks, different AI platforms have made the headlines: Midjourney and Stable Diffusion can generate art in seconds, while ChatGPT and CopyAI can create articles on the spot. AI is quickly evolving its capabilities to create things that humans would take hours or days to do.
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“AI is the big one,” claimed Bill Gates. “I don't think web3 was that big or that metaverse stuff alone was revolutionary but AI is quite revolutionary.”
The AI platforms gaining traction seem to be focused on content creation, but the AI Gates is more interested in the technology that could tangibly improve people’s lives.
“Most of my time is on innovations like helping pregnant women know if they need to get to a hospital in advance (the ultrasound work I mentioned in my end of the year letter). Malnutrition and anemia and also important areas we see a lot of promise in right now,” said Gates, who’s eyeing how AI can support critical fields like medicine.
The unnerving fact is, despite its advanced capabilities, AI is still in its early stages—as is our understanding of it. The ethics of AI use is still up for debate, as well as the limits of how much humans can use it. The New York City public school district has banned the use of ChatGPT on school grounds to lower instances of cheating. CNET is under fire for using AI to generate inaccurate and misleading stories. Google issued an internal “code red” to redirect its efforts on AI innovation.
Zuckerberg might be focused on the metaverse, and Bezos and Musk are obsessed with space exploration. But for Gates, and many others, we can all agree: AI is the next frontier.
