AI would kill Google and Amazon - Bill Gates

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates believes that the future of artificial intelligence (AI) is an AI-created personal assistant (or agent) that would easily kill Google and Amazon. At the Goldman Sachs and SV Angel event on artificial intelligence and as reported by CNBC, Gates added that the technology would be "deep" and capable of "radically" altering user behaviour. At this stage, certain consumer tech companies offer virtual assistants like Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa, but they lack an AI-like generative approach. AI chatbots, including ChatGPT, Bard, and Bing, can act as personal assistants to some degree, but we're in an early stage. However, an AI personal assistant or agent, as Gates described, may not seem too far off now.

At the AI-focused event, Gates said, "Whoever wins the personal agent, that's the big thing, because you will never go to a search site again, you will never go to a productivity site, you'll never go to Amazon again. The former Microsoft CEO claims that the yet-to-be-developed AI assistant can understand users' needs and habits and even "read the stuff you don't have time to read."

To be fair, Gates' version of the AI assistant sounds like Tony Stark's Jarvis (Edith in the later movies) from Iron Man. Gates also hopes that Microsoft can create technology when it's ready. He notes, "I'd be disappointed if Microsoft didn't step in," adding, "But I'm impressed with a couple of startups, including Inflection," as he refers to Inflection AI. The AI startup aims to simplify the way we communicate with machines.

At the event, the former Microsoft CEO spoke about the benefits of AI in the healthcare sector. He claims that AI will accelerate innovations in space and lead to more advanced drug development. Gates believes humanity is getting closer to creating useful drugs to cure diseases like Alzheimer's, with human trials for the new drugs likely to take 10 years.

It is not the first time Bill Gates has spoken about generative AI and its benefits. Earlier, he praised ChatGPT and said the chatbot would make office work easier. Gates said that ChatGPT provides a glimpse of what's to come, adding that Web3 or Metaverse wasn't that big, but the AI-backed tools are revolutionary.

Microsoft also has a partnership with the maker of ChatGPT, OpenAI. In fact, Microsoft Bing incorporates the underlying technology, GPT LMM, to offer a conversational response. Repeatedly, the company is creating a private ChatGPT for enterprise customers.