Billionaire and businessman Bill Gates has shared his fears over how fast artificial intelligence, aka AI, is growing. He also dived into what he believes we should do about it.
The Microsoft co-founder took to his own website to write about how technology is advancing and shared that. Yes, even the richest people are fearful of how AI could be used in the future. Although, the 67-year-old shared some of his optimism by explaining what we can do before it’s too late. He shared some insights into how we can combat any fears we may have. He said: “This is not the first time a major innovation has introduced new threats that had to be controlled. We’ve done it before.” The tech exec warned us all about Covid years before it happened, so what’s Bill Gates’ take on AI?
Bill Gates’ fears around AI
Talking about deep fakes, videos or pieces of audio that depict events that aren’t real, such as fake videos of celebrities, or leaders of countries saying offensive things, he said despite technology becoming more and more sophisticated, so are humans.
He believes people are learning not to just “take everything at face value.” The billionaire believes we’re better at detecting spam emails than when they first appeared. Just like ones from bank providers or from far away princes offering lots of cash. However, he said we aren’t out of the woods just yet, as it will be a “cynical process.”
“Someone finds a way to detect fakery, someone else figures out how to counter it, someone else develops counter-countermeasures, and so on. It won’t be a perfect success, but we won’t be helpless either,” he said.
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“The good news is that AI can be used for good purposes as well as bad ones,” he writes on AI and cyberattacks.
Bill explains reassuringly that while those who want to harm us on the internet take hours to find weaknesses in technological codes, those who want to protect us do the same thing. The difference being they’re trying to prevent these issues. He says despite it being proposed that we stop developments in AI, they should continue.
The 67-year-old urged: “Cyber-criminals won’t stop making new tools… The effort to stop them needs to continue at the same pace.”
Dangers of cyberattacks and fears over jobs
The billionaire argues that having AI help out in the workplace has its pros and cons. He argues that “it’s good for society when productivity goes up”. Bill adds we have seen this kind of “big shift” before when computers became commonplace. In his view, it will allow us to get on with other matters, though it could certainly be an area for concern. Bill suggests that the government will “need to manage it well so that workers aren’t left behind.”
He acknowledges the tech can have its biases when it comes to people’s identities, for example, race, gender, and sexuality.
“AI models inherit whatever prejudices are baked into the text they’re trained on,” he writes. He further gave the example of making AI believe that all doctors are men.
The tech chief also writes about the use of AI by students. He believes this is similar to when electronic calculators began to be used in the 1970s and 80s. Many math teachers panicked, while others “embraced the new technology.”
He quotes Cherie Shields who penned: “Just like we once taught students how to do a proper Google search, teachers should design clear lessons around how the ChatGPT bot can assist with essay writing. He says that the biases and fear around AI could be used to have students fact-check what has been written, meaning that AI is used and yet critiqued at the same time”.
Bill Gates lists ‘massive’ benefits of AI – if we get it right
Bill suggests that governments should have experts on the matter in their vicinity. They can “make informed laws and regulations that respond to this new technology,” as well as work with other countries’ authorities so that there is a collaborative effort when it comes to AI.
He says companies who deal with the tech should make sure it is safe and protects those who use it or have it as part of their ethos. He penned that it should “reflect basic human values, minimizing bias, spreading the benefits to as many people as possible, and preventing the technology from being used by criminals or terrorists.”
The tech innovator also encouraged readers to “follow developments in AI as much as possible” and urged it should be debated. “The benefits will be massive,” he said. “And the best reason to believe that we can manage the risks is that we have done it before.”
Taking on climate change
Along with being a big name in tech, he has also been vocal about climate change. The philanthropist even written a book called How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.
He said in 2021: “I think we’re at a crucial moment. I’ve seen exciting progress in the more than 15 years that I’ve been learning about energy and climate change. The cost of renewable energy from the sun and wind has dropped dramatically. There’s more public support for taking big steps to avoid a climate disaster than ever before.
“And governments and companies around the world are setting ambitious goals for reducing emissions. What we need now is a plan that turns all this momentum into practical steps to achieve our big goals. That’s what How to Avoid a Climate Disaster is: a plan for eliminating greenhouse gas emissions.”
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