Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is very busy these days in the media, promoting his ideas of what the future of humanity should look like, and he is given a chance to do that both on streaming networks like Netflix, and legacy broadcasters like ABC.
It remains a mystery why this man’s opinions on these big topics matter or should matter, let alone be implemented anywhere, given his background. And that’s the already mentioned Microsoft, a poster child for corporate oppression in the tech market, and in many aspects the controversial Gates Foundation.
This mystery was not explained, though, as Oprah Winfrey on ABC let Gates promote regulation that would essentially create a de jure version of what is already de facto happening: the Big Tech-Big Government collusion.
Only, going forward, Gates seems to prefer that to be legitimized (instead of being treated as unconstitutional in the US, which it is right now), and a regulated policy to be referred to as “companies working with the government.”
And why? Gates, of all people, cynically cites the need to “craft something that’s not just profit driven.”
The question Gates was trying to answer while presenting his thoughts on this future dystopian hybrid “partnership” was whether he thought Microsoft and others making money from “AI” products are obligated to “help us manage and navigate through this change,” as Winfrey put it.
Gates’ response shows once again that “AI” is and will continue to be used, in public messaging, as one of the ways to justify and normalize the increasing entanglement between the government and powerful private entities.
As for “misinformation,” Gates is – but of course – worried, and it seems he has chosen to refer to himself as “naive” when it comes to the earlier days of personal computing and the internet. (He has mentioned this supposed “naive” persona in other interviews.)
And it’s important to view Gates as “naive” back then if you’re going to believe the things he is saying now. Winfrey was interested in how what is happening around the “AI” today can be informed by what was “missed” regarding social media and the internet as a whole.
Other than branding himself as “naive” (and ABC choosing to illustrate his comments with footage of Alex Jones and his website – to which Jones reacted with quite a few choice words), Gates said this:
“We thought the internet, the availability of information would make us all a lot more factual. The fact that people would seek out kind of a niche of misinformation, we were a bit naive, and bringing those lessons up, let’s get ahead of this. Let’s get the politicians to be users and have a dialogue about maximizing the benefits while minimizing the negatives.”
