IMDA talks AI, innovation, philanthropy with Bill Gates

If Bill Gates had to start his career from scratch again - with today’s technology tools like artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, and blockchain - would it be easier or harder to build something impactful as the Windows platform? 

Gates’ response was to find something that no one else was doing.

“If you want to do a foundational model, you better have a different idea... You could come up with something that’s pretty amazing, the horizontal model that comes out today may be better at whatever vertical you chose.

“The world is very embracing of entrepreneurship, but you have to be a little bit of a contrarian and pick something that other people don't see,” he said. 

Gates was responding to the question posed by a 27-year-old Computer Science student, Yam Kar Lok, from the Singapore Management University (SMU) at a fireside chat held at ATXxInspire on May 6. 

Organised by the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA), ATxInspire hosts a year-round series of thought-provoking discussions and presentations by industry leaders, government officials, and academics.   

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Innovation, lessons, and philanthropy 

The session was moderated by IMDA’s Chairman and Managing Director, Russell Tham, who was also Temasek’s Head of Emerging Technologies. 

The hour-long session explored different dimensions of Gates’ personal journey in technology and philanthropy, and his vision for innovation and building a better future for all. 

The session began with Gates sharing that the Gates Foundation’s plans to open a new office in Singapore, its 12th worldwide, to strengthen its partnerships with governments, philanthropy institutions across Southeast Asia and support progress toward global health and development goals. 

Founded in 2000, the Gates Foundation is a private non-profit founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, with an endowment in the region of US$75.2 billion (S$97 billion). 

Gates highlighted his work in climate technologies through Breakthrough Energy, a climate organisation headquartered in Singapore jointly established by Gates, Temasek, and Enterprise Singapore last year. He added that the organisation’s presence in Singapore has been key in providing lessons for the Gates Foundation’s work in Africa. 

“It's an exciting time in that I would say innovation is accelerating, and to see know how Singapore is playing a central role in that... I’m glad to be here and [I] come back on a regular basis, both for our climate and philanthropic work,” he said. 

 
IMDA’s Tham considered the Gates Foundation as “one of the most consequential philanthropy organisations”, with its emphasis on science and innovation, and he asked about the lessons that Gates applied to help scale up Gates Foundation its current standing.  

Gates referenced his lessons from Microsoft, having worked with experts in the field and witnessed the pace of computing developments of the time, which helped him realised the areas left unaddressed by capitalism.   

“For example, Malaria is a disease that is only in poor countries and these poor countries can't create the tools to solve that problem. 
 
“If you're optimising for human improvement rather than just a pure profit motive, these things become incredibly obvious, and so it's tapping into deep innovation,” he said referencing the low-cost vaccines and nutrition knowledge derived from the funding from Gates Foundation. 

 
In the next 25 years, Gates added that with coming innovations for tuberculosis, HIV, malnutrition, and maternal deaths, the Gates Foundation will be able to reduce the death rates in half, and even eliminate some diseases like guinea worm, polio, and potentially malaria and measles. 

AI innovations 
 

On AI, Tham inquired how it can help reduce inequalities in society and lift the lives of low-income countries. 

Gates said he believed that over the next decade, intelligence of all types will essentially be “free”. 

He highlighted Gates Foundation’s key priority areas for AI - health, education and agriculture.  

“Access to a good doctor has been just a rich country thing... It's a very privileged thing. I happen to have a lot of very good teachers, so I was willing to persevere. And now, that information is going to be something available to everyone. 

“We'll make sure that happens in poor countries as fast or faster than it happens in the rest of the world,” Gates added. 

However, he highlighted challenges with AI deployment as it required a bigger change to how society is organised, including the interactions between AI and humans. 

Call to action 

With a handful from the audience indicating their aspiration to be an entrepreneur, Gates provided his advice on innovation and risk in the pursuit of these large and audacious goals.  

Establishing the principle that inequity should be reduced, Gates highlighted his own experience in malaria research where innovation was not limited by ambition. 

“I think if you pick something that's big, then you can afford to fail. The HIV vaccine that the world really needs, we've been working on it and had a lot that did not work, and yet it's still worthwhile to keep on,” he said. 

Contrary to expectations, Gates added that competition is reduced when working on problems that aren't profit driven. This purpose should “keep you on your toes” according to him. 

Concluding the fireside chat with Tham asking Gates on his call to action for the young crowd, Gates highlighted the capacity of humans to innovate and that now is not the time for complacency. 

“I think in a way, you were born at the most interesting time. 

“You know your opportunity to both use these tools to satisfy your own curiosity and push out to the functions of knowledge, and then, whether it's in a big company, or your own entrepreneurial company, to try something new and different,” he said.