Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has shared his predictions for next year, including how artificial intelligence could transform modern medicine and how the 2024 elections could serve as an important “turning point” for both health and climate.
Mr. Gates said this year has given the world a glimpse into how AI will shape the future and impact the next generation, providing a better sense of where and when it might be applied and where it will likely serve as a “copilot.”
Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI, the makers behind ChatGPT.
Mr. Gates noted the swift advances in AI this year and its growing application in various sectors, noting that it’s now “clearer than ever how AI can be used to improve access to education, mental health, and more.”
AI Use in Medicine
“We are just at the beginning of this transition right now,” he continued, adding that AI “is about to accelerate the rate of new discoveries at a pace we’ve never seen before.”Mr. Gates said one of the biggest impacts AI has had so far is in creating new medicines, noting that it can speed up the process of drug discovery “significantly.”
He said that experts are currently assessing AI to see if it can be used to combat antibiotic resistance, help treat high-risk pregnancies, help people assess their risk of HIV, and make medical information easier to access for all health workers.
“If I had to make a prediction, in high-income countries like the United States, I would guess that we are 18–24 months away from significant levels of AI use by the general population,” he suggested. “In African countries, I expect to see a comparable level of use in three years or so. That’s still a gap, but it’s much shorter than the lag times we’ve seen with other innovations.”
Elsewhere, Mr. Gates predicted that the 2024 elections would mark a “turning point for both health and climate,” but warned that the “decisions made by elected leaders will determine how much progress we continue to make in each area.”
Pandemic Preparation
National elections, such as those taking place in the United States, India, and South Africa, will “grab most of the attention,” he said.“And while every year’s elections are important, the sheer number of people who will vote in 2024 means that the results will have an outsized impact on the future of our world,” Mr. Gates wrote.
The tech mogul also predicted various new innovations entering the marketplace in 2024, even in “very complicated areas like nuclear” power, despite some objections from environmentalists.
“As countries make progress on their climate plans, more people are realizing that we will likely need nuclear power to meet the world’s growing need for energy while eliminating carbon emissions,” Mr. Gates wrote, adding that the next decade will also serve as a key period for upgrading electric grids and improving power transmission.
He stressed that the next five years are also a critical period in terms of energy production.
“The world has made incredible advancements in generating clean electricity, but we won’t realize the full potential of this hard work without the infrastructure to deliver it. This is something that will require support from all levels of government but especially from local leaders,” he said.
The tech mogul signed off his blog post by stating that the world is not as prepared for the next pandemic as he had “hoped we would be by now” despite the upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Now is the time for policymakers to prioritize pandemic preparedness before it is too late,” Mr. Gates concluded.
