BILL GATES TALKS TO RICH GUYS, TECHIES, ACTIVITISTS, SCIENTISTS…
Amidst existential anxieties about inequality, climate change and gen AI, the pull of ‘future porn’ is enormous. We want to know which people have what solutions in the making. The special hook that Netflix documentary “What’s Next? The Future with Bill Gates has, is that the Microsoft founder and billionaire and philanthropist anchors the conversations. Here’s a glimpse of how the talks go.
WHAT CAN AI DO FOR US/TO US:
In 2022 AI woke up. GPT-4 crossed a magic threshold. It can read and write and talk to us. The copyrighted material AI models train on gets a lot of attention, but these were not possible before you started putting so much content online from Reddit to personal videos.
AI promises to fill the yawning gaps in health and education. AI tool Sybil can accurately predict an individual’s future lung risk from a CT scan. In five years we will see an app approved as a primary care physician.
AI’s also made it hard for James Cameron to create science fiction. Any idea of his takes a minimum three years to go to screen. How’s he going to be relevant in three years when things are changing so rapidly? He compares all the jobs angst to early onset dementia. As people exit the loop, what replaces their sense of purpose and meaning?
TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES?:
A lot of people who started the internet thought it would bring humanity together. They didn’t anticipate it being a great medium for being anonymous in a malevolent way.
Given how this trend amped up during the pandemic. It’s interesting to think of applying the methodology of contact tracing to get to the origin of a lie. People asked to explain they reached an outlandishly untrue conclusion usually say, ‘Somebody showed me a tweet.’ An untruth retweeted 100,000 times becomes a fact.
CAN WE STOP GLOBAL WARMING?:
When Earth’s surface was last as warm as today, sea level was 25 feet higher. Now, not only do we have to build a cleaner electricity grid, it has to be 2.5 times larger because demand will keep going up. Cement is the most consumed human-made material on the planet but inventing a new way to make it is a long way from making it affordable for every cement kiln across India.
The key lies in the profit motive. There’s only one thing as big as Mother Nature and that’s Father Greed, the marketplace.
CAN YOU BE RICH?:
Is the existence of billionaires the epitome of the American dream or a fundamental policy error? America’s poor would make up a country bigger than Australia. For workers who get tips, the federal minimum wage is $2.13 per hour. And yet, Mitt Romney says, finding policy solutions has taken a backseat, to culture battles and demonization of people across the aisle.
Sure, the wealthy give back to society. But why should it be their choice and vanity? What about higher taxes instead? In the 50s and 60s, US had higher taxes, higher economic growth and deeper investments in the safety net. In 1964 the John administration launched the war on poverty, and ten years later, the poverty line was half of what it was in 1960.
