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Microsoft has once again claimed title of the world's most valuable public company, surpassing Apple's market capitalization. The software giant's stock has experienced a notable upswing in recent months, attributed to the positive reception of its announcements regarding artificial intelligence (AI).

 

In a recent interview during World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates shared his perspective on the transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in the coming five years. The billionaire's quite optimistic that the rise of AI will not only bring about significant changes but also make people's lives more convenient whether it is health sector or any other field. 

 

The dialogue then gained momentum as Gates emphasied on the AI-driven tools currently undergoing trials in India, demonstrating the potential to revolutionize maternal health with the technology, while the conversation then turned over to the risks tied to geopolitical instability and the pivotal role that nations, particularly India, can play in fostering constructive relationships. 

 

Q- What AI could do potentially as far as the healthcare system is concerned in countries like India, where do you see AI coming to Bridge some of the deficits that currently exist?

 

A- Well AI will be beneficial in two ways. It'll accelerate the invention of new tools, new vaccines, and new drugs. The rate of innovation will be much faster, but also, the patients themselves when they're concerned about their health, will be able to consult directly and the workers in the Healthcare System. They'll be getting advice and being trained for example will use AI training where you can ask the worker can ask any questions. And so the cost of training and the quality of training would be much better because it'll have AI embedded. 

 

Q- Some of the pilots that are underway in India which gives you hope and confidence of being able to take them up to scale? 

 

A- This is pretty incredible because it brings together AI with health. This is the scanner that you can use. So when a woman's pregnant you scan them and you can tell if the delivery going to be difficult or not and based on that the woman needs to go where she can get a C-section or she can have the confidence to stay and just have the Local healthcare workers from midwives and so with this diagnosis which is actually very very cheap. You can reduce maternal deaths by about 50%. It's a new thing. It's under the pilots are underway in Indy right now, you know, we're talking with the regulator about what they'd like to see working with Partners, but a perfect example of how you can bring something cheap AI-enabled so that you don't need an expensive technician. The software is doing the hard work.

 

 

Q- One requires funding to be able to get innovative tools out there in the market, and that's the concern now the Gates Foundation is doubling down on funding because we're seeing a decline as far as developmental Aid is concerned. What's your message to government policymakers to Global Business Leaders today?

 

A - The rich countries should be more generous in their budgets so that we can support whatever unrest demands whatever climate demands and continue to have more resources for health. The Global Alliance for Vaccines helps by vaccines that are based on rich countries and the Gates Foundation's generosity and we're trying to make sure that as we go back to replenish that fund we can raise as much as we did in the past because it's had such an incredible impact.

 

Q- Do you believe you're going to be able to raise the kind of money that was raised in the past or do you think that the macroeconomic headwinds and challenges, you know with the war and the uncertainty that the world is dealing with it's going to be tough for you to be able to do that? 

 

A- Yeah, the money going into particularly African countries with interest rates up. New loans are down. You know Aid is pretty flat and a lot of it's going to new activities. We're going to have to economize, someone but this is the most important we're going on in the world saving literally millions of lives. India is making progress. We pilot a lot of these new ideas there and then scale them up to the entire world.

 

Q- But does it address the shortages that we see as far as health care work because they're not just in India, but globally that's a huge Challenge and how will it help bridge that Gap?

 

A- No, it helps dramatically, you know for the doctor it's helping with the paperwork, you know for the nurse - it’s helping them think through. Even for the patient to get answers directly. So in some cases, they don't need to actually go and be at the health center. It makes the Whole Health System far more effective

 

 

Q- What do you make of the breakout moment that we've seen for chat GPT and the Implications in the impact it's going to have on the global economy?

 

A- Well, this is a huge milestone because AI up until now could recognize images and speech but they couldn't read and write and so chat gpt and how many competitors are doing similar things. It's the first time the AI can actually scan a complex document and summarize it for you. It can help you find information for you. It can help you rewrite things. It can help a student prompt them as they're trying to improve their writing skills. So for all white-collar work, for students, for the health system. This is really an aid that even in a five-year time period we'll see immense productivity increases.

 

Q- So how would you qualify this moment in technology? I mean given the experience that you've had the many changes that we've seen. Do you believe that this is perhaps one of the most profound technological advances that we're seeing?

 

A- Yeah, the progress will be fast. Part of the beauty of it is you can take the low-cost cell phone and the mobile network. You've already got the patient doesn't have to buy new hardware. There has to be a computer running the AI and okay, we have to make that cheap and have a lot of that but the cell network you have today the cell phone you have today. That's the infrastructure used to do these ai-enabled consultations.

 

Q- How do you see this playing out the vaccine supply chain diversification and what its impact could be? 

 

A- Well, India's the volume Leader by far with vaccines. Working with the government made a lot of vaccines The Gates Foundation provided some support as well. We make sure that for all these vaccines there's enough capacity that there's competition. So the prices keep going down and we will have new vaccines. We'll have a TB vaccine, malaria vaccine, HIV vaccine, and even things like COVID-19 vaccines, we need to make them have longer duration, and more coverage and we're gonna change instead of you see needles to use a little patch. So the pandemic really highlighted that we've been under-invested in those Innovations and you know, our partners are India are part of how we're going to get these breakthrough products done.

 

Q- While climate continues to be a big challenge in a crisis you now have the copper dressing some of those challenges but for health, you know, you need something similar? 

 

A- Well the visibility of Health which should be at the top of the list of how we affect people's lives by solving nutrition, solving maternal deaths - it isn't getting the visibility and yet you know, why are we worried about the climate where we because they'll have malaria more places, you'll have more floods and you know in Pakistan, for example, they had a lot of malaria after their floods and thousands of deaths that came out of that. So, you know more money is going into the health system in India, you know, increasing that even faster but using these Innovative tools, it's going to make a big difference.

 

Q- What is exciting in India outside of what's happening on the healthcare side? I know you've been an advocate of what's happened with Aadhar and of course, the digital public stack as well as you look at the digital story and how it's playing out in India with Aadhar with UPI Etc. What are you most excited about?

 

A- Well, India did a great job of using the G20 meeting the Highlight the great work they've done, you know, the foundation's been a partner in that. It’s really for financial transactions and in the future for things like health and education made things more efficient, you know avoided middlemen having to be paid and so India rightly wants to share this example and actually help all the countries in the world build these digital systems. We have some universities in India that have been staffed up for these projects. And so you know, I look at a map of Africans and say okay, which countries have adopted this stack and how can we help really make sure that things like digital Finance or available to everyone

 

Q- We have elections in many countries including the US and of course, India as well from healthcare and a development Aid perspective how important will 2024 be and the Electoral outcomes could shape the way that funding moves?

 

A- India kind of competence for Key Systems has been one of the issues actually I think has been positive and in the US, we've had leaders including Republican leaders who've been great on global Health. There are a lot of priorities. I'm hoping whoever gets elected will maintain the US generosity on the research side and even on delivery funding because particularly in areas like HIV - it's made a huge difference.

 

Q- As you look at the outlook for 2024, we continue to see an uncertain world. At this point in time, debt continues to be a concern for large parts of the economy. Globally the economy slowing down is of course a challenge as well, what worries you the most, and where do you find your optimism?

 

A- Human innovation will allow us to improve lives dramatically. The financial headwinds are tough whenever you get into War - that's of course an incredible tragedy that takes us backwards. And so that balance of continuing the Innovation make sure it gets delivered even in the face of these challenges, you know, that's what gets me excited and working with others to show this positive progress,

 

Q- How do you see AI regulation and the need for it and what it should regulate? 

 

A- It’s a lot like the internet where the current laws about financial fraud or coffee right things like that will apply here as well. It will make it easier to generate misinformation so really have to look at the rules there and make sure that the negatives not outweighing the positives. you want to make sure it's available in the Healthcare System, but that it's accurate enough that there's nothing negative about that. These are very early days. What's good is the politicians want to learn and want to see where it can benefit them and you know politicians all over the world. We'll talk about how you get the good stuff to be fast and minimize the misinformation piece. 

 

Q- Do you believe that we need to slow down the Innovation is that even possible till the regulation catches up?

 

A- I haven't really heard anyone saying that they think we should slow down - that could be open for debate, but I still see deploying it in areas like health and education as something we should encourage. We want to make sure the good guys have AI so that for cyber defense or you know detecting, you know misinformation and so far, you know empowering good things, justifies going Full Speed Ahead. 

 

Q- What is the use case that you are most excited about when we talk about the transformative power of AI inclusive and responsible AI? 

 

A- Well, the two that are dramatic are Health - both for creating new tools and for helping patients seek Health Care in a smart way and then education - where you can have an individual tutor that helps you learn new things.

 

Q- Talking about gender parity as well as what the foundation is doing to be able to focus on women's health in specific. And again, this is one of those things that doesn't get enough attention and continues to be hugely underinvested. What needs to be done to fix this? 

 

A- Well the majority of our health R&D focuses on these issues like women who died during pregnancy. It's an incredible tragedy. We have new tools that reduce the bleeding problem very dramatically. I have blood pressure which is a clamp, you have infection, and every one of those areas. We're the biggest funder of Low-cost tools that can be load rolled out. You know, we've got on the ground Partnerships in places like up in Bahar where these things are being tried out, you know, we hear what works. So yes, it's an area that needs more funding. 

 

Q- The Gates Foundation is committed to eight and a half billion dollars in 2024, but a lot more money is required to be put on the table. What's the message to those who have large pockets and can put good money to good use? 

 

A- Well philanthropy is a growing thing including in India. And you know, we have people there who are looking at areas like Health, and we're excited to be working with them. You know, you should have a high expectation that philanthropists help out those most in need and it can grow a lot. 

 

Q- What's the one big risk that you're most concerned about today as you look at the world?

 

A- Well, the instability, you know, includes things like US-China relations that could slow down all this progress. And so hopefully you get reasonable works on both sides and you know, India can play a role there.

 

Q- What role do you believe India can play in that?

 

A- India’s setting an example - working both with China and the United States. We saw this at the G20, and it was very constructive to turn the attention to win-win relationships.

 

(Curated from the interview of Bill Gates with Shereen Bhan broadcast on CNBC-TV18)