Bill Gates makes prediction for how people will live 'like the Amish' as Microsoft puts 60,000 jobs at risk
Bill Gates is once more speaking about the rise of artificial intelligence, with the Microsoft co-founder claiming we're now entering a 20-year transitional period before society will reap the benefits.
Gates, who stepped down as CEO of the tech giant in 2000, recently sat down with the Decoder podcast, where he claimed some people may decide to 'like the Amish' during this time.
"My big concern is this 20-year transition period, where they’ll have winners and losers and a lot of disruption," Gates said.
"We have to get through that in order to get to that period of abundance."
Advert
In the podcast, Gates expressed his belief that AI needs to be regulated to ensure its safety for widespread use across society.
Gates added to host Nilay Patel: "Once you have multiple competitors, the level of responsibility can’t be with the companies. It’s completely obvious.
"The responsibility becomes the government’s responsibility, just like it is with every other dangerous product, although the magnitude there and the degree of change is minuscule by comparison.
"You don’t want to enable bioterrorism. We have created something that takes out of the hands of nation states — actually the larger of them — the ability to do dramatic harms."
While many worry AI could put them out of a job in the future, Gates said people and workforces have a choice regarding how the tech is used.
“If we don’t choose to massively slow down or stop, then we will have robots that can build houses, grow food, do surgery,” the 71-year-old added.
"And none of the things that human labor provides to the economy will be necessary for most goods and services."
Gates continued: "We’re going to have real choices. We have had groups — not large groups, but like the Amish — who don’t live at the technology frontier.
"Even though the AI could do those things better, we would choose to do that."
"A lot of humanity may choose not to live at the technological frontier because of things we get from helping each other or coming up with unique ideas."
Gates concluded the podcast appearance by prediction the rise of AI 'is going to be as tumultuous a period as there’s been in human history'.
It comes after Microsoft offered a 'voluntary exit offer' to 60,000 workers, according to the Financial Times.
Reports claim the buyout is offsetting the costs of implementing AI infrastructure.
UNILAD has reached out to Microsoft for comment.
Topics: Artificial Intelligence, Bill Gates, Microsoft, Technology
Callum Jones