Білл Гейтс / YouTube-канал Computer History Museum
Microsoft founder Bill Gates in interview Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe, at the presentation of his new memoirs, said that today’s youth should be worried about only four, but «very scary» things. In his understanding, — is the climate crisis, «uncontrolled» artificial intelligence, bioterrorism/pandemic, and nuclear war.
«There are four or five things that are very scary, and the only one that I really understood and cared about when I was young — is nuclear war», Gates says. «Today, I think we should add climate change, bioterrorism/pandemics, and maintaining control over artificial intelligence in some form to that list».
Gates also called social polarization — the growing difference in the position of social groups (for example, a sharp division into rich and poor) — «a potential problem».
In fact, this is not the first time that Bill has highlighted these problem areas and has often mentioned them in his posts or comments. Regarding AI, the billionaire argues that society suffers from a «lack of intelligence» and artificial intelligence could be one of the ways to solve this problem — only if used in a controlled manner.
«We don’t have many experts in medicine, math, or other fields», — the billionaire says. «We have an intelligence deficit. AI will eventually make this intelligence virtually free».
Gates also says that fear can become a kind of incentive for younger generations, as «exaggerated risks» can push them to do the right thing.
As a reminder, earlier Elon Musk criticized the Microsoft founder for his words about artificial intelligence and called his knowledge «limited» (In fact, Musk said the same thing about Zuckerberg in 2017).