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Bill Gates can’t believe that no one is worried about AI as much as he is.
In a new blog post — and accompanying media blitz — the billionaire suddenly sounded alarmed about how the technology is shaping our future after being blindly optimistic about it for years, warning that it’ll annihilate jobs and desolate the economy.
“AI will either be the greatest equalizer ever invented, or the worst source of injustice,” he wrote in the nearly 6,000 word essay (which, incidentally, isn’t the only 6,000 word AI screed from a major tech leader this month.)
“Even under the best circumstances,” he added, the “transition to this new AI era will be one of the most turbulent times in human history.”
Ever the protagonist, the Microsoft founder is astonished that no one else is as panicked about it as he is.
“I am in a state of shock that I’m sort of the first one saying, ‘This is crazy. This is insane,'” Gates told Semafor in an interview. “I’m just deafened by the silence.”
One wonders when the last time he had his hearing checked was. Economists have been warning about how generative AI could disrupt the workforce since the moment that ChatGPT became a global sensation. Often AI companies themselves are parroting these same warnings. And that’s not to mention the other ways that it’s already having impacts beyond the economy, such as sowing misinformation and fueling mental health crises.
But better late than never. Gates says he’s worried about these impacts, too, warning Semafor that unlike previous technological revolutions in the past, which created more jobs than they destroyed, AI will do the opposite, touching virtually every field.
“There isn’t a job that isn’t affected,” he told Semafor. “It’s different not because the speed is different, but the breadth is what makes it utterly, utterly a unique moment in evolutionary history.”
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