I think he's right about its potential. The problem is we live in a "jobs economy" and if society at large wants to reap the rewards of AIs progress, we need a new, more socially focused and humane economic system... Unfortunately the U.S. is currently trying to go the opposite direction.
And comparing it is all fine and good if you're, once again, thinking of it in only current economic terms, but don't forget that after the dot com bubble burst, the Internet still went on to completely change the way the world functions and how humans think and laws still haven't caught up.
Gates has spent the last two decades inserting himself as a unelected, untrained health decision maker for millions and perhaps billions of people around the world via his foundation. Him thinking doctors will be replaced by AI is actually extremely chilling given the influence he wields.
They think that the goal of a service is having an answer, but no, the goal of a service is having the RIGHT answer, and not a bag of inconsistent slop that won't help nor answer the question. Worst part, the population is getting older, are we going to rely on bots while we literally need people?
The problem is that Gates and Company think AI doing most things is good and they think you just need to get with the program and you'll see it's good, too.
What they never contemplate is that we will want the choice to opt out until they can prove the concept IS good, not that it might be.
Gates is rampantly overdoing it, but we are seeing AI/machine learning freeing up medical work hours by being as good at some diagnostic work (Finding fractures in X-rays and tumors in MRIs for example) and vastly faster. Those aren't LLMs, obviously.
Saying an AI can replace a doctor is like saying I could replace a doctor because I know how to Google stuff. A database of knowledge is not the same thing as actual understanding.
This is probably the most dangerous thing Bill has said.
Not because he's right - this is obviously an attempt of his to stay relevant in a world that has moved on and he doesn't understand - but because others will attempt to make it so, and gaslight society into thinking it is so when they fail.
I wrote this whole rant immediately after seeing this. This reminded me.of the magical thinking I've been concerned about, but I finally put it to words.
I do also love how listening to your podcast it tends to start with an Oracle ad, glad to see their AI is in charge of determining good places to spend their advertisement money....
It’s as if there’s no benefit at all to face to face teaching and students meeting each other in a classroom. Yes, let’s make us anitsocial even more than we are. Ballardian dystopia.
Unfortunately, even if Gates was correct about AI making swaths of jobs obsolete, that just provides a whole plethora of new issues where millions of people will be unable to live, because capitalism will deem them worthless and they will have no means of survival.
funny that researchers are only a tad more restrained, AAAI 2025 poll still had 24% predicting that scaling current AI tech could lead to AGI. What the fuck?
We should regard all these AI warnings as religious propaganda, and treat them the same way we treat Jehovah's witnesses or Mormons whenever they come bothering us at our door.
Can't fucking wait to be raked over the coals in healthcare costs to make the line go up for shareholders. all the while, my doctor running on chatGPT tells me that as an LLM, he can't prescribe me medications or give medical directions.
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Wrong on climate. Wrong on politics. Wrong on most everything.
What they never contemplate is that we will want the choice to opt out until they can prove the concept IS good, not that it might be.
moron and disgusting person? Just because he pretends to care about global warming and malaria or whatever
Not because he's right - this is obviously an attempt of his to stay relevant in a world that has moved on and he doesn't understand - but because others will attempt to make it so, and gaslight society into thinking it is so when they fail.
I was *overestimating* their thinking on it.
"Oh wow, AI is smart enough to do my job. If it can do the job of the smartest man in the world, it should be able to do any job!!!"
I'm gonna be sick
By itself it will be a blank script for narcotics from robodoctors, and a substitute teacher demolished by kids
"We made the teacher make fart noises every time it spoke"
The AI market can stay delusional longer than its victims can stay alive. Unfortunately.
I legitimately did not see that one coming.