There is no doubt that Bill Gates likes to predict the future. And, although he is not always right or usually changes his mind, his comments do not They go unnoticed. Over the years, anticipated the enormous impact of the Internetlaunched predictions about the most suitable energy alternatives for the planet and addressed the rise of artificial intelligence (AI).
On the latter, the discourse of the co-founder of Microsoft has been changing. A little less than a decade ago, Gates considered that AI could become a threat to humanity. Currently, however, he believes that it will be “as important as the PC or the Internet was”, although very important changes are coming in the technology industry.
Google, Amazon and the AI challenge
The latest predictions of the philanthropist come to us from San Francisco, a city where this week he participated in an event by Goldman Sachs and SV Angel. According to Reutersin his speech he addressed the new dynamics that companies will adopt after advances in AI. For Gates, a race will emerge to develop “personal assistants” based on this technology.
However, according to the Microsoft co-founder, the first companies to launch their personal assistants will have a substantial advantage over the rest because it will drastically change the way users do things. “You’ll never go to a search site again, you’ll never go to a productivity site again, you’ll never go to Amazon again,” he said. In this sense, in addition to the e-commerce company, the other big loser could be Google.
These personal assistants, which we have not yet seen in action, will be designed to understand the needs and habits of people and help them accomplish a wide range of tasks, for example, “read the things they don’t have time to read”. Of course, he has also predicted that it will take a while until this product reaches the public.
While waiting for this technology, he points out, companies will continue to allocate resources to present solutions based on generative artificial intelligence. Gates has not given names in particular, but in recent months we have seen the emergence of ChatGPT come Microsoft’s Bing Chat, Google’s Bard and even Amazon is preparing to feed its product search system with its own chatbot.
Of course, the businessman believes that Microsoft is one of the great candidates to win the race for the advanced digital assistant, although some emerging companies they have great chances of catching up with the Redmond giant. “I’d be disappointed if Microsoft didn’t get in there, but I’m impressed with a couple of startups,” he said.
With time we will know if this forecast of Bill Gates comes true. The commitment to AI is growing in different areas, but it has not yet shown its potential in voice assistants, the closest thing we have to personal assistants today. These were the great promise of AI, but for now, they seem to have been left behind.
Images: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | Microsoft | Arkan Perdana
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