Key points
- AI to assist humans rather than replacing them: Experts
- Gates says certain types of jobs will likely never be replaced by AI
- People don’t want to see machines playing baseball: Gates
WASHINGTON: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has said that over the next decade, advances in artificial intelligence (AI) will mean that humans will no longer be needed “for most things” in the world.
He made this claim during an interview on NBC’s “The Tonight Show” in February. At the moment, expertise remains “rare,” Gates explained, pointing to human specialists we still rely on in many fields, including “a great doctor” or “a great teacher.”
But “with AI, over the next decade, that will become free, commonplace — great medical advice, great tutoring,” Gates stated.
In other words, the world is entering a new era of what Gates called “free intelligence” in an interview last month with Harvard University professor and happiness expert Arthur Brooks, CNBC reported.
AI-powered technologies
The result will be rapid advances in AI-powered technologies that are accessible and touch nearly every aspect of our lives, Gates has said, from improved medicines and diagnoses to widely available AI tutors and virtual assistants.
“It’s very profound and even a little bit scary — because it’s happening very quickly, and there is no upper bound,” Gates told Brooks.
The debate over how, exactly, most humans will fit into this AI-powered future is ongoing. Some experts think AI will help humans work more efficiently — rather than replacing them altogether — and spur economic growth that leads to more jobs being created.
“Hugely destabilizing impact”
Others, like Microsoft AI CEO, counter that continued technological advancements over the next several years will change what most jobs look like across nearly every industry, and have a “hugely destabilizing” impact on the workforce.
“These tools will only temporarily augment human intelligence,” he wrote in his book “The Coming Wave,” which was published in 2023. “They will make us smarter and more efficient for a time, and will unlock enormous amounts of economic growth, but they are fundamentally labour replacing.”
Gates is optimistic about the overall benefits AI can provide to humanity, like “breakthrough treatments for deadly diseases, innovative solutions for climate change, and high-quality education for everyone,” he wrote last year.
Gates said that certain types of jobs will likely never be replaced by AI, noting that people probably don’t want to see machines playing baseball, for example.
“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,” Gates said.
AI’s development does come with “understandable and valid” concerns, Gates wrote in a 2023 blog post. Today’s top-of-the-line AI programs are rife with errors and disposed to enabling the spread of lies online.
