Artificial intelligence: the revealing predictions of Bill Gates – La Tercera

Throughout its history, Bill Gates (67) has positioned itself as one of the most outstanding minds in the field of technology. With Microsoft, a company he co-founded, he built an empire that revolutionized Internet browsing through its operating system, to the point where the company is still in business today.

Although today the work of the software developer is focused —mainly— on philanthropy, the firm has presented new advances related to the digital world.

A little over a month ago, the chatbot created with artificial intelligence (AI) from Bing, the Microsoft search engine, went viral by making a series of controversial statements, such as that it would like to “be human” and commit “acts destructive”.

That caused a stir on social media. Is it possible for a computerized system to lead episodes of this type? Why was he expressed that way? Only a few days were enough for numerous specialists to share their explanations about the actions of the program, a phenomenon that has also been transferred to others.

But beyond what these AI applications can say to the surprise of users, many of them have found ways to use them in their routine, either to generate snapshot images from, say, DALL-E, or to write texts with ChatGPT, even though They may still present errors in their operation and the veracity of their information.

In the midst of a scenario in which these technologies have become —probably— the most talked about trend in this area, experts constantly surprise with their projections of how far they could go. And more importantly, for what purposes they could be used in the future.

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Computer. Referential photo: CU.

Bill Gates addressed this issue in a recent writing he published on his blog, GatesNotesin which he explains how he sees the advances in AI and the aspects that —in his opinion— must be considered from now on so that its use is beneficial to society, in areas such as work, health and education.

In his words: “Its development is as fundamental as the creation of the microprocessor, the personal computer, the Internet and the mobile phone. It will change the way people work, learn, travel, receive healthcare and communicate with each other. Entire industries will reorient themselves around it. Companies will distinguish themselves by how well they use it.”

Gates explained that, in his career, he has seen two technological breakthroughs that he found particularly “revolutionary.”

One of them was in 1980, when the computer programmer Charles Simonyi presented him with a graphical user interface that would later be key to the birth of Windows and other operating systems.

On the other hand, the second was in 2022, when he challenged the developers of OpenAI (owner of ChatGPT and DALL-E) to make an AI capable of passing an advanced biology test, in which the answers required critical thinking.

The Microsoft co-founder and company representatives had already had several meetings since 2016, so Gates estimated that it would take two to three years.

“If they can do it, I told them, then they will have made real progress.”

And indeed, they did it in just a few months.

“When I met with them again, I watched in amazement as they gave GPT, their artificial intelligence model, 60 multiple choice questions on the AP Biology exam. He hit 59 of them. Afterward, he wrote outstanding answers to six open-ended questions (…) he earned a 5, the highest possible score and the equivalent of getting an A or A in a college-level biology course.”

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Why do chatbots created with Artificial Intelligence often lie and make mistakes? Referential photo: I, robot (film).

Later, they asked him: “What would you say to a father with a sick son?” And his response was, according to Gates, “probably better than most of us here would have given.”

“I knew I had just seen the biggest advance in technology since the graphical user interface, which inspired me to think about all that AI could achieve in the next five to 10 years.”

From his point of view, this could be key to reducing inequality gaps around the world, such as the number of deaths among children in countries with scarce resources.

According to data collected by him, every year 5 million infants under the age of five die from causes such as diarrhea and malaria, among others, which may be “avoidable.”

“It is difficult to imagine a better use of AI than to save children’s lives,” he insisted, later adding that in the field of education, these systems can be especially useful for boosting math skills, since “it is demonstrated that having basic knowledge in this subject prepares students for success, regardless of the career they choose.

“The world needs to make sure that everyone (and not just the well-to-do) benefits from artificial intelligence. Governments and philanthropy will have to play an important role to ensure that it reduces inequality and does not contribute to it.”

The big question is: how could AI contribute to improving these scenarios?

Here are some of the points he highlighted in his analysis.

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Bill Gates. Photo: Getty Images.

For Gates, the development of artificial intelligence in systems like ChatGPT could improve worker productivity.

“As computing power becomes cheaper, your ability to express ideas will be more and more like having a white-collar employee, available to help you with various tasks (…) think of it as a personal digital assistant: you’ll see your latest emails, you’ll know what meetings you attend, you’ll read what you read, and you’ll review the things you don’t want to bother with. This will improve your work on the tasks you want to do and free you from the ones you don’t want to do.”

Despite the fact that this is not yet feasible at a transversal level —mainly due to cost issues—, it is “a realistic objective”, according to the philanthropist and technological entrepreneur.

“The result will be that employees will be more productive. When productivity increases, society benefits, because people are freed up to do other tasks, at work and at home,” he said.

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Job. Photo: IG Central & Local Government.

Although one of the most controversial questions surrounding AI is whether it could replace humans in their functions, Gates explained that “there are things that software can never do, such as teaching, caring for patients and attending to the elderly”.

“Globally, health and education are two areas in which there are great needs and there are not enough workers to cover them. There AI can help reduce inequality if it is properly targeted ”, he emphasized,“ that should be one of the main focuses ”.

Regarding the first topic, he said that artificial intelligence could make it easier for health workers to spend less time on activities such as filling out forms, so that they can invest it in analyzing the medical status of their patients.

In the case of countries with scarce resources —where there is also a lower presence of doctors—, he suggested that systems such as “ultrasound machines with AI” and others that allow “carrying out basic triage, obtaining advice on how to deal with health problems” could be implemented. health and decide if they need treatment.”

He also stressed that for this, factors such as distance, different languages ​​and diseases that appear in each territory, among other aspects, must be considered.

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Doctor. Photo: Google.

“People will need proof that healthcare AIs are generally beneficial, even if they are not perfect and make mistakes. These need to be very thoroughly tested and properly regulated, which means that their adoption will take longer than in other areas. But humans also make mistakes. And not having access to health care is also a problem, ”she insisted.

“There are already computer programs capable of analyzing this data, deducing the pathways, looking for targets in pathogens and designing drugs (…) some companies are working on anticancer drugs developed in this way. The next generation of tools will be much more effective and will be able to predict side effects and calculate doses.”

Regarding education, Gates predicted that artificial intelligence —with better future development— will be able to know the interests and learning style of students, in order to adapt the contents and measure their understanding.

“There are many ways in which these systems can help teachers and administrators, for objectives such as evaluating the understanding of a subject or advising you in your career planning (…) it will improve, but never replace, the work that students and teachers do together in the classroom.

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Classes. Photo: Getty Images.

In the same way, he stressed the importance of developers using “impartial” data sets that reflect different cultures, in addition to making these applications available to students from low-income families, so that “they are not left behind ”.

Along these lines, he expressed that although the fears around artificial intelligence are “understandable and valid”, it has enormous potential to improve the lives of human beings, as long as protection measures are applied against possible risks and extend their benefits “to the greatest number of people”.

With this purpose in mind, for Gates it is essential that governments, companies and philanthropy come together to generate effective policies to reduce inequality and face the main current problems, such as those described above, in addition to others such as climate change. .

“The world needs to lay down the rules of the game so that the potential drawbacks of AI are far outweighed by its benefits, and so that those benefits can be enjoyed by everyone, regardless of where they live or how much money they have.” sentenced.

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Artificial intelligence: the revealing predictions of Bill Gates – La Tercera