Bill Gates says AI can ‘potentially reduce work week’ for doctors, teachers

Microsoft founder Bill Gates is currently on a visit to India to attend the wedding of Mukesh Ambani’s youngest son Anant Ambani to Radhika Merchant, daughter of known business tycoon Viren Merchant.

Bill Gates, in an interview with the Times of India, talked about the speed at which artificial intelligence is advancing and raised several concerns. He also said that AI will further help the world in designing drugs better, and make huge strides in the education sector.

The Microsoft founder told TOI, “Overwhelmingly, in the near future, this is a huge advance that will help us in a lot of key areas. AI will assist us in designing drugs better, improving designs, and we’re certainly going to apply it to build tutors in education. There’s a lot of great experimentation happening here in India, such as XStaff and Huami in the US. Our foundation is collaborating with partners like Khan Academy, and it really looks quite promising in terms of how we can assist students in a rich way.”

Highlighting the challenges that the world can face with artificial intelligence, Bill Gates said that it is not known how fast AI can develop and how good it can actually get. The billionaire also said that AI can lead to “rapid changes”, and adjusting to it can be a challenge for many.

“The only concern I would have about the technology is that we don’t know how much faster it’s going to improve, and there’s essentially no limit to how good it could get. While increased productivity is generally a positive development, it can lead to rapid changes that require adjustments from all of us,” he added.

‘AI can reduce the work week’

Bill Gates said that artificial intelligence can potentially help reducing the work week in many sectors as there is currently a shortage of medical staff and educators in the global scenario.

“We have a shortage of doctors and teachers and leveraging AI could potentially allow us to reduce the work week. However, we’ll need to understand it and make necessary adjustments to fully harness its benefits,” he told TOI.

On attending the Ambani-Merchant wedding, Bill Gates said that he will be donning an Indian attire for all the marriage festivities, saying that he “got fitted” for all the clothes in preparation of the functions.