Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates believes the likes of Google Search, Amazon, and Shopify will soon be outdated if AI continues to evolve at the current pace.
Gates believes AI is already changing future economies.
If a new AI tool begins to understand human thinking patterns, needs, and feelings, it could change human behavior, the 67-year-old said in San Francisco yesterday during the AI Forward 2023 event hosted by Goldman Sachs and SV Angel.
“You will never go to a search site again, you will never go to a productivity site, you’ll never go to Amazon again,” said Gates.
Microsoft is leading the chase for a powerful AI
Despite the creativity and competition from AI startups in the US, the tech mogul remains optimistic that Microsoft could lead the creation of this yet-to-be-designed AI, indicated by its $10 billion investment in OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
“I’d be disappointed if Microsoft didn’t come in there. But I’m impressed with a couple of startups, including Inflection.”
However, he said, until an all-powerful AI agent disrupts Big Tech business models, companies will rush to embed ChatGPT-like features into their products to meet customers’ demands.
Microsoft is itself integrating ChatGPT with MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. In February, it introduced ChatGPT in its Bing search engine and Edge browser, giving it a competitive advantage over Google, Yahoo, Firefox, and Opera.
Technological singularity is not very far, anyway
Gates warned that a future where robots take over blue-collar jobs is not far. Humanoids would make industrial work cheaper and more efficient. As generative AI keeps producing accurate, quality, and compelling text, white-collar jobs are at no less risk of being replaced.
In 2020, Twitter CEO Elon Musk predicted human comprehension risked being overtaken by AI in less than five years.
In April, Musk asserted that technological singularity, the point at which AI surpasses human intelligence, is a real and imminent threat.