I can't be the only one who finds the current rise in AI technology to be incredibly dystopian right? The amount of power it uses radically destroys the environment, the same way copious amounts of fossil fuels do. Additionally, it's not being solely used to automate tedious leg work like it probably should be. Rather, people are callously utilizing it to sway from art and human expression completely. Eventually, it becomes a matter of product over soul. But apparently, Bill Gates thinks AI can go even deeper, in a way that strikes me as incredibly stark.
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Recently, the Microsoft co-founder sat down with Jimmy Fallon to talk about AI in its current and future iterations. There, he makes an incredibly grim prediction that the tech can take over the roles of doctors and teachers. Eventually, he proposes that we won't need humans "for most things." "So the era we've come to is sort of the vision that computing was expensive and it basically became free," Gates says. "The era that we're just starting is that intelligence is rare, you know, a great doctor, a great teacher. And with AI, over the next decade, that will become free. Commonplace, you know? Great medical advice, great tutoring."
Bill Gates Envisions Future Where Doctors and Teachers Aren't Needed Due to AI
He does reserve some things that only a human can feasibly do. But ultimately, he sees a lot of the job market essentially being void because AI can fill the space for us. "You know, like baseball. We won't want to watch computers play baseball," Gates adds. "So there'll be some things that we reserve for ourselves, but in terms of making things and moving things, and growing food, over time, those will be basically solved problems."
This potential reality horrifies me. Theoretically, it allows us to focus more on the arts but it likely ends up swaying the other way. People have already gotten overly reliant on using generative AI to "create" "art." Eventually, the brains will grow numb where we'll only consume rather than engage with art in a meaningful way. Moreover, the emphasis on AI decentralizes the basic need to interact with others, making us far more insular as a result. At some point, Gates' idea for the future sees us lose what it means to be human. Our roles would inevitably become mere bodies to go into war or work lifeless jobs.
