MICROSOFT co-founder Bill Gates said OpenAI’s language-generation artificial intelligence (AI) tool, GPT, is one of two revolutionary technologies he has come across in his lifetime. 

The 67-year-old billionaire and philanthropist called it the “most important advance in technology since the graphical user interface”, which has enabled people to more easily interact with computers by using icons, menus and windows, and set the standard for modern operating systems. 

Gates has been meeting with the OpenAI team since 2016. Last year, he challenged them to train GPT to pass the Advanced Placement biology exam. The test requires students to think critically about biology, he said, not just recite facts. He added that he thought it would take a few years for the team to succeed, but it took only a few months for GPT to get the equivalent of an “A” grade in a college-level biology course.

OpenAI, now backed by an additional US$10 billion of investment from Microsoft, last week released GPT-4, the latest version of the generative AI model. It can even be used for tasks such as coding and creating images; the newest version can also answer questions about user-provided images.

OpenAI has touted GPT-4’s success on standardised tests, but a Princeton University professor and a PhD student argued in a blog post this week that these may be the wrong benchmarks for assessing the technology’s ability. 

Gates said he is inspired about the potential for AI to reduce some of the world’s worst inequities, from healthcare in the developing world to climate change and education. He added that The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with which he now spends most of his time, will provide more details about how it hopes to use AI in the coming months.

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“The development of AI is as fundamental as the creation of the microprocessor, the personal computer, the Internet, and the mobile phone,” he wrote on his Gates Notes blog. “It will change the way people work, learn, travel, get healthcare, and communicate with each other. Entire industries will reorient around it. Businesses will distinguish themselves by how well they use it.”

Still, Gates acknowledged that the technology “raises hard questions about the workforce, the legal system, privacy, bias, and more”.

“The world needs to make sure that everyone – and not just people who are well-off – benefits from AI. Governments and philanthropy will need to play a major role in ensuring that it reduces inequity and doesn’t contribute to it. This is the priority for my own work related to AI,” he wrote.

Gates also noted the threat of “humans armed with AI”, concluding that governments need to collaborate on setting limits with private companies. There is also what he sees as a more long-term risk – that of AI that is not aligned with humans, or working in opposition to people. Those questions will grow more significant over time, he said. 

“Could a machine decide that humans are a threat, conclude that its interests are different from ours, or simply stop caring about us?” he asked. “Possibly, but this problem is no more urgent today than it was before the AI developments of the past few months.” BLOOMBERG