New York: Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates believes artificial intelligence (AI) will replace human teachers and doctors within the next decade adding that humans may become obsolete for most tasks.
Speaking on The Tonight Show in February, he told Jimmy Fallon, “With AI, over the next decade, that will become free, commonplace—great medical advice, great tutoring.” He called this shift “free intelligence.”
The primary concern surrounding AI is its impact on jobs. While some experts believe AI will assist workers and create new opportunities, others, including Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, warn that it will “fundamentally” transform industries and have a “hugely destabilising” effect on the workforce. Bill Gates acknowledges these risks but maintains that certain jobs will always require human involvement.
“There will be some things we reserve for ourselves. But in terms of making things and moving things and growing food, over time those will be basically solved problems,” he told Fallon.
He added since OpenAI introduced ChatGPT in 2022, artificial intelligence has transformed the way we think and work. While AI chatbots like Gemini, Copilot, and DeepSeek are primarily used as productivity tools, concerns are growing that AI could replace jobs across various industries.
The 69-year-old also stated that AI will not replace biologists but will serve as a valuable tool for tasks like disease diagnosis and DNA analysis, as it lacks the creativity needed for scientific discoveries. He also emphasised that AI won’t replace energy experts, as the field remains too complex for full automation.
As generative AI continues to advance rapidly, many industry leaders have reiterated that the technology will significantly reshape the way we work, with AI surpassing human intelligence in certain sectors.
He pointed to Google DeepMind’s AI, which defeated human players in Go, as a major milestone. Even he was surprised by AI’s speed of progress.
In 2023, he challenged OpenAI to create an AI that could pass a high school AP Biology exam, expecting it to take years. “They finished it in just a few months,” he later wrote.
“It’s very profound and even a little bit scary—because it’s happening very quickly, and there is no upper bound.”
