A technological problem that makes Bill Gates helpless, having to rely on posterity

In a recent interview with CNBC, Bill Gates said that misinformation is a problem that he has to give up on, cannot solve, and has to leave this problem to the younger generation.

Nowadays, creating and spreading misinformation is easy and fast thanks to technological advances such as general artificial intelligence chatbots.

A January 2024 World Economic Forum survey found that AI-generated misinformation was seen as the top global risk over the next two years. Another 2023 Pew Research Center survey found that 55% of Americans said the US government and tech companies should take action to curb online misinformation.

As a celebrity, Bill Gates is all too familiar with misinformation. But he only realized the severity of the problem during a conversation with his daughter Phoebe.

Bill Gates said that his daughter told him about how she was being harassed online and that her friends had experienced it quite a bit.

Last year, in an interview with The Information, Phoebe Gates spoke out about what she called 'misconceptions and conspiracy theories' about her own family and relationships, including racist comments online about one of her ex-boyfriends being black.

Other problems, like eradicating disease or promoting cleaner energy, aren't easy but have clearer paths to solving them, Gates said. Meanwhile, there's no easy solution to slowing the spread of misinformation.

When Bill Gates started Microsoft, he thought that most people would want to use home computers and then the internet for purely responsible and productive purposes. Even today, he remains a bit 'naive' in believing that when it comes to information, people will want accurate information.

But after talking to misinformation experts while filming the documentary, Bill Gates realized that people often look for information to confirm their previous beliefs.

'Even I would be immersed,' he said. 'Let's say there's some article online criticizing a politician I don't like. I think I'd enjoy reading it, even if it's exaggerated.''

Misinformation is now too easy to spread to billions of people actively using the Internet, and Bill Gates says he doesn't know how to stop the spread of misinformation.

Bill Gates wrote in a blog post last year that tech companies may develop AI tools to identify misinformation and toxic speech online, but the nature of a tech arms race is 'perfect failure,' with one person creating a solution, another finding a workaround.