Bill Gates doesn’t believe tech experts hold all the answers on how artificial intelligence will fully impact jobs and social activities in the future, but he does think it’s important we all start working with AI tools now, given where the tech is headed.
“The ability to work well with AI and take advantage of it is now more important than understanding Excel or the internet,” he told me. It’s one of the topics I discussed with him during our conversation about What’s Next? The Future with Bill Gates, a new docuseries landing on Netflix on Sept. 18.
Described by the Microsoft co-founder in the opening episode as “a show about our future,” the upcoming five-part series examines multiple issues: AI, misinformation, income inequality, the climate crisis and global health. The doc spotlights not only Gates’ perspective but differing viewpoints from doctors, educators, scientists, activists, entrepreneurs, artists like Lady Gaga and filmmaker James Cameron, and Gates’ family. These contrasting views — and its discussions — gave the tech pioneer something to ponder.
Five years ago, Netflix aimed to give viewers a tour of Gates’ problem-solving mindset through the documentary Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates. The Davis Guggenheim-directed series explored Microsoft’s early days, the tech innovator’s childhood and his charitable pursuits in global health, climate change and toilet sanitation in developing countries. Today, Gates is still seeking to solve most of these problems through tech and philanthropy — but now AI is here.
What Bill Gates thinks about AI and jobs
Writer Tim Urban and OpenAI‘s Greg Brockman are among those featured in the first episode, sharing their insights on ChatGPT and the evolution of AI superintelligence, while other experts weigh in on the ethics, benefits and drawbacks of AI. At one moment, New York Times journalist Kevin Roose brings up AI’s impact on jobs.
Cameron, meanwhile, raises points about how it’s become harder for him to write sci-fi as technology moves at a faster pace and expresses concerns about AI. He and Gates discuss its effects on humans’ sense of purpose and how Cameron holds a “dystopian” view toward the tech as opposed to Gates’ optimism.
Pointing to Gates’ conversation with Cameron, I asked for his thoughts on the future of humans and jobs with AI. He asserts that AI could help with shortages of teachers, physicians and mental health professionals but admits humans ought to be taken into account and limits should probably be established.
“We don’t want to watch robots play baseball, and so where is the boundary where you say, ‘OK, whatever the machines can do is great,’ and these other things are perhaps very social activities, intimate things, where we keep those jobs?” he said. He explains these conversations will be ongoing for the next 10 to 20 years as the nature of work evolves with AI, but it’s great that discussions are happening right now. Why?
“Because that’s not for technologists to understand better than anyone else. That really gets to the heart of religious values, philosophical values… and it’s kind of a nirvana. But are we going to manage it well? And how quickly does it come?” Gates notes that this episode of the series not only looks at how AI’s benefits will dominate conversations over the next couple decades but also examines how we rethink spending our time when the way we work changes.
That doesn’t mean people should ignore AI’s uses today. As a former CEO, he’d advise everyone to “use AI as a tool.” According to Gates, “It’s becoming – whether you’re an illustrator or a coder or a support person or somebody who is in the health care system – the ability to work well with AI and take advantage of it is now more important than understanding Excel or the internet.”