Humans need to understand the risks of artificial intelligence, appreciate the potential rewards, and work with the technology rather than avoid it. It’s the new reality, and the only question is how we deal with it.
That’s the gist of a new post by Bill Gates on the rise of generative artificial intelligence. The Microsoft co-founder and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-chair acknowledges the pitfalls of AI — including deep fakes, misinformation, perpetuation of bias, and cyberattacks — but points to historical precedent for adapting. He writes, in part:
“… This is not the first time a major innovation has introduced new threats that had to be controlled. We’ve done it before.
“Whether it was the introduction of cars or the rise of personal computers and the Internet, people have managed through other transformative moments and, despite a lot of turbulence, come out better off in the end. Soon after the first automobiles were on the road, there was the first car crash. But we didn’t ban cars—we adopted speed limits, safety standards, licensing requirements, drunk-driving laws, and other rules of the road.”
Gates previously called the rapid rise of generative AI, led by Microsoft partner OpenAI, “as fundamental as the creation of the microprocessor, the personal computer, the Internet, and the mobile phone.”
In the past, Gates has addressed the potential for AI to benefit students by providing human-level tutoring, but in the new post, he also addresses the drawbacks, most notably the potential for students to use AI to cheat.
He calls on teachers to use AI as tool for higher-level learning.
“It reminds me of the time when electronic calculators became widespread in the 1970s and 1980s,” he writes. “Some math teachers worried that students would stop learning how to do basic arithmetic, but others embraced the new technology and focused on the thinking skills behind the arithmetic.”
Read the full post.
