Topics: Bill Gates, Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Climate Change
Bill Gates has insisted that the next generation should be fearful and striving to address at least four major issues as society progresses.
Despite being one of the richest people alive, Bill Gates still has fears and many of them are tied to the future.
But at the age of 69, the billionaire tech businessman is less concerned about himself but rather future generations.
In an interview with Patrick Collison he said there are four major things the younger generation should be concerned with, while comparatively he only had to worry about one.
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During the interview he said: “There's, you know, about four or five things that are very scary, and the only one that I really understood and worried about a lot when I was young was nuclear war.”
While nuclear war remains a potential issue, most rationally-thinking people agree nuclear war and nuclear fallout/winter isn’t the best thing for humanity, regardless of the conflict.
However, Gates revealed that this concern regarding nuclear war should now be accompanied by at least three other major fears.
He continued: “Today I think we'd add climate change, bioterrorism/pandemic, and keeping control of AI in some form.
“So, you know, now we have four footnotes. The younger generation has to be very afraid of those things."
While Gates has previously spoken about how artificial intelligence can massively shift society, and this certainly wouldn’t be great for everyone, he has also spoke out about the potential benefits.
Gates also said: “We don't have as many medical experts, you know, people who can stay on top of everything, or people who can do math tutoring in the inner city.
“And we have a shortage of intelligence, and so we use this market system to kind of allocate it. AI, over time—and people can argue about the time frames—will make intelligence essentially free."
But despite the warnings of the future, Gates is still optimistic about what awaits humanity and the younger generation. He argued that, regardless of the potential pitfalls, overall they are going to be better off.
He added: "Absent not solving some of these big problems, things are going to be so much better off.
“Alzheimer's, obesity, you know, we'll have a cure for HIV, we will have gotten rid of polio, measles, malaria. The pace of innovation is greater today than ever."
So, at least it isn’t all doom and gloom for the future, according to Bill Gates..
