Bill Gates Says AI Will Change How People Interact With Computers

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates believes artificial intelligence (AI) will forever change how people interact with computers.

in his latest blog post, Gates shared some of his predictions for the future, when AI will become an inseparable part of our lives.

According to Gates, people will not be using different apps for different tasks within the next five years. Instead, they will simply tell their phone or computer what they want to do and AI will handle their request.

The top executive believes anyone who is online will be able to have an AI-powered personal assistant in the near future. Notably, these personal assistants, whom Gates refers to as "agents," will adopt more advanced technology.

An AI-powered personal assistant

Agents will be capable of accomplishing a slew of tasks based on what they know about you as a person, Aside from changing how everyone uses computers, Gates said agents will "upend the software industry".

The billionaire believes the arrival of agents will bring about the biggest revolution in computing. However, it is important for agents to be able to learn about you as a person so that it can work efficiently.

The more agents know about you, the more they will be able to anticipate your needs and help you. These agents are smart and proactive, Gates said.

Agents will be able to make suggestions even before you ask them and can accomplish tasks across applications. Furthermore, Gates said agents will improve over time as they start recognising intent and patterns in a user's behaviour.

They will use this information to provide what they think you need. However, you will be able to make the final decision, Gates says.

In the rest of his post, Gates talks about how AI will affect specific industries, including health care, education, productivity, entertainment and shopping.

To recap, he previously indicated that ChatGPT-like AI bots could soon replace human teachers. Gates also highlights some technical and regulatory challenges that could stand in the way of realising this vision.

Despite these hurdles, Gates seems to agree with former President of the United States Barack Obama and his advisors, who believe AI is much more than just hype.

AI named Collins Word of the Year

Currently, the hype around AI is so big that Collins Dictionary has crowned AI the word of the year. According to the publisher, the word was used 4x more times than last year.

In its latest blog post, the UK dictionary noted that AI is considered to be the next great technological revolution. The technology has witnessed rapid development and has been a topic for discussion in 2023.

While some industry leaders claim AI could lead to dire consequences like the extinction of humanity, major tech giants like Google and Microsoft are sparing no effort to be at the forefront of the AI space.

According to a report by Business Standard, managing director of Collins Alex Beecroft said they picked AI because it has become a big part of our lives.

Beecroft pointed out that AI is now as common as email and streaming services and people use the technology in multiple ways. "It's everywhere," the top executive noted.

The publisher explained that AI was chosen from a list of new terms that reflect "our ever-evolving language and the concerns of those who use it".

Notably, the terms greedflation and debanking were also on the list. Greedflation alludes to the use of inflation as an excuse to raise prices to high levels in a bid to increase corporate profits.

Likewise, debanking refers to the act of "depriving a person of banking facilities". The terms nepo baby and deinfluencing also made the list.

Collins lexicographers define deinfluencing as the use of social media platforms to warn followers to avoid certain products, lifestyle choices, commercial products and more.