Abstract:
Bill Gates, chairman of the Gates Foundation, said when attending the Foundation's Goalkeepers meeting in New York: "Of course I hope that I only need to talk about foreign aid and how to reduce child deaths." But Gates mentioned that artificial intelligence is developing rapidly, and when he meets with leaders of various countries, he has to discuss another topic at the same time: whether society is ready to deal with the risks brought by this technology.
About a year ago, he said, he was stunned by the progress AI was making, because the technology was now capable of doing programming tasks that had taken him hours to master in his youth.
Gates said that AI can not only write code, but also study code, find vulnerabilities, and may also invade various systems.
It's not just the capabilities of the technology itself that worry him. "In the face of this exponential progress, there has not been enough widespread participation and discussion at the social level." He said that the relevant risks are already being discussed within the technology industry, but the broader public group has not yet fully participated.
Gates described the current transformation as "the plot of ten science fiction novels happening at the same time." Traditional science fiction works often revolve around a single major technological breakthrough, but AI may drive rapid changes in multiple fields at the same time.
In Gates’ view, to deal with the challenges of AI, we must first involve more people: both as users of the technology, we must also understand the risks involved. “The future path of mankind will depend on how we treat this technology.”
He even compared the development of AI to "the arrival of aliens." "AI is different from all previous technologies. If you only regard it as a continuation of past technologies, it will be easy to take it lightly. It is extremely special, just like aliens coming, but these 'aliens' are created by us. They do not need to arrive in a spaceship, but are put into computers by us."
Gates said that we must fully understand the two sides of AI. On the one hand, it can promote innovation in the fields of agriculture and public health, but on the other hand, it may also bring risks.
In his speech that day, Gates also mentioned that he regretted seeing some rich countries cutting aid to low-income countries. "The economy continues to grow, and corporate profits have hit new highs. However, the governments of many wealthy countries around the world have become increasingly stingy." He said that he was not calling on one part of the world to save another part, but advocating for generous investment to promote common progress and help communities that are still trying to save lives even if they lack resources.
He called for the restoration of financial support to ensure the most basic survival needs. "If we can combine more public welfare investment with the rational use of artificial intelligence, we can accelerate the realization of the goal of global equity."
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