Bill Gates worried AI will take his job: It may say 'I can eradicate malaria'

Bill Gates hosted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and talked about the current state and future of AI. Here's what they said

Microsoft founder Bill Gates said that he was positively surprised at how sophisticated AI models like ChatGPT have become. Although, the tech magnate said that he does not completely understand how these models encode complex information such as Shakespearean texts, he said, “I was very skeptical. I didn't expect ChatGPT to get so good.”

Bill Gates, co-chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, speaks during the 2024 CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston, Texas.(Bloomberg)

In a recent episode of his podcast “Unconfuse Me with Bill Gates”, Bill Gates hosted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and talked about the current state and future of AI. 

What Sam Altman said on AI in chat with Bill gates?

Sam Altman said there there is increased focus on interpretability research owing to which intricacies of AI encoding and operations would eventually be unraveled. Drawing parallels between the understanding of human brain function and challenges of AI’s internal workings, he said that he remains very optimistic about understanding the technology over time which will enhance its development and application. When OpenAI built GPT-1, they had “no deep understanding of how it worked or why it worked”, he shared. 

What Bill Gates said on AI and its development? 

Bill Gates talks about AI’s potential to address significant challenges like solving complex social issues and transforming healthcare and education. Bill Gates expressed concerns about the downsides of advanced artificial intelligence has he talked about people losing their jobs. 

Even I could lose my job, Bill Gates said. 

Bill Gates said, “I get a lot of excitement that, hey, I'm good at working on malaria, and malaria eradication, and getting smart people and applying resources to that. When the machine says to me, ‘Bill, go play pickleball, I've got malaria eradication. You're just a slow thinker,' then it is a philosophically confusing thing.”