Microsoft (MSFT 0.00%)founder Bill Gates was speaking to a group of college students in 2004.
According to The New York Times, Gates was a bit concerned about the decline in the number of computer science majors, as well as the notion that the field had matured and there weren't many breakthroughs left to achieve in the area.
One student expressed doubt that there would ever be another tech company as successful as Microsoft. Gates' reply is eye-opening:
''If you invent a breakthrough in artificial intelligence, so machines can learn, that is worth 10 Microsofts.''
He wasn't kidding...
Image Source: Getty Images.
Fast-forward to today, and of course someonehasfigured it out. This special kind of artificial intelligence is called machine learning.
If anything, Gates was too conservative in his estimates. Experts say the market opportunity is now far, far greater than 10 Microsofts.
And Gates isn't alone in his optimism. Other top business leaders are on board as well.
- Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon (AMZN 0.84%), said he thinks this new technology is the key to Amazon's future.
- Sun CEO Greg Papadopoulos is calling it "a real revolution."
- Even super investor Warren Buffett says that it will have a "hugely beneficial social effect."
When machines go to college
We've referred to machine learning before as the beginning of today's AI explosion. It's "simply" software that ingests data, learns from it, and can then form a conclusion about something in the world.
Thus, the key to understanding machine learning is that it's software that writes itself. Instead of explicitly programming software what to do, you instead provide it with large amounts of data and let it learn on its own. This allows machine learning to solve problems that earlier software with even billions of lines of code couldn't have solved.
A more powerful subset of machine learning is deep learning, which essentially simulates how neurons in the human brain strengthen connections between one another to learn.
If you're wondering how companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook have grown to be among the largest in the world, part of the answer is how well they've integrated machine learning and deep learning into all aspects of their businesses.
So many examples, so little space
Amazonis a perfect example. It was among the quickest companies in the world to embrace the technology and it serves as a preview for what's to come. As CEO Jeff Bezos noted in a letter to shareholders:
"Machine learning drives our algorithms for demand forecasting, product search ranking, product and deals recommendations, merchandising placements, fraud detection, translations, and much more. Though less visible, much of the impact of machine learning will be of this type — quietly but meaningfully improving core operations."
With Amazon's success, other retailers have been forced to up their games as well. WalmartChief Data Officer Bill Groves mentioned at a tech conference last month how his company uses NVIDIAhardware and machine learning for product forecasting, supply chain management, and understanding consumer behavior, "So when the customer comes in the product they want is sitting on the shelf."
A great non-retail example of the power of machine learning is Facebook, which uses it to determine what goes in your news feed and what advertisem*nts you might respond to. (The company's election-related controversy also points out the extreme challenges in employing a technology this powerful.)
Facebook benefits tremendously from the network effect, which makes a service more valuable as the number of users grows. And this company has one of the largest caches of consumer data in the world. All that data wouldn't be nearly as valuable without a way of making sense of it all, and that's where machine learning comes in, as Facebook can target advertising in extremely specific and effective ways.
Alphabet's (GOOG -0.78%) (GOOGL -0.80%) Google has also been among the early leaders. It's another company with a gold mine of data that can target online ads in uncanny ways. Alphabet even offers services such as machine learning and image recognition through cloud services to other companies.
Of course, Alphabet's Waymo self-driving car division also relies heavily on AI. An autonomous car's "brains" have to constantly assess the ever-changing surroundings and make split-second life-or-death decisions. This is done so effectively that even now – in the early stages of the self-driving revolution – it's easy to see how AI can save millions of lives in the future.
There's much, much more than I have room for here. Credit card companies have used machine learning to improve fraud protection. Netflixuses it to give you movie recommendations. Advances in robotics will change our lives well beyond vacuums. There are huge implications in the field of healthcare.
To bring the story full circle, Gates' own Microsofttrails only Amazon in cloud computing and uses AI for things like object recognition and speech translation in its Azure platform.
Microsoft provides the Azure Machine Learning cloud service that allows any developer to build and train their own machine learning models, something Gates back in 2004 would have been very excited about.
Bottom line for investors
Honestly, this article is only a small first step to help you as an investor understand that AI, machine learning, and deep learning are an essential part of every industry and almost all major companies. It reminds me of a couple of decades ago when smart investors understood that eventually nearly every company would be an "Internet company." The same holds true for AI.
As processors get ever faster, storage becomes cheaper, software better, and data collection more efficient, AI will only get smarter and ever more important. It's clear to me that the great leading companies of the next decade and beyond will also be the most innovative in the development and use of AI.
John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Teresa Kersten, an employee of LinkedIn, a Microsoft subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Rex Moore owns shares of Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Facebook, Microsoft, and NVIDIA. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Netflix, and NVIDIA. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2021 $85 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
FAQs
“The AI's will get to that ability, to be as good a tutor as any human ever could,” Gates said in a keynote talk on Tuesday at the ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego.
What does Gates compare the impact of AI to in his letter? ›
Gates has been a strong proponent of AI and has compared its potential impact to the Internet or mobile phones. “I don't understand who they're saying could stop, and would every country in the world agree to stop, and why to stop,” he said.
Is Bill Gates still involved with Microsoft? ›
Later in his career and since leaving day-to-day operations at Microsoft in 2008, Gates has pursued many business and philanthropic endeavors. He is the founder and chairman of several companies, including BEN, Cascade Investment, TerraPower, bgC3, and Breakthrough Energy.
...
Microsoft has sought to outpace peers through multi-billion-dollar investments in ChatGPT owner OpenAI. While currently focused full-time on the philanthropic Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates has been a bullish supporter of AI and described it as revolutionary as the Internet or mobile phones.
What AI company is Bill Gates investing in? ›
In January, the $2 trillion software company Gates co-founded (from which he stepped down as director in 2020) then made a multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI.
What type of intelligence is Bill Gates? ›
Bill Gates, Assertive Logician (INTP-A) | 16Personalities. Intuitive (N) and Thinking (T) personality types, known for their rationality, impartiality, and intellectual excellence.
What is the strong AI argument? ›
Strong AI is the view that suitably programmed computers (or the programs themselves) can understand natural language and actually have other mental capabilities similar to the humans whose behavior they mimic.
What happens when AI is smarter than us? ›
The theory is that AI, coupled with other technological advancements, will progress at an exponentially faster rate until it able to autonomously improve its own software and hardware and far surpasses human intelligence, and indeed, becomes of greater consequence than human existence.
How advanced will AI be in 10 years? ›
Over the next ten years, AI is expected to become increasingly sophisticated and complex. Technical advancements in this field will likely focus on creating general intelligence that rivals or surpasses human capabilities.
What will happen to Microsoft after Bill Gates? ›
It's the first time in two decades that Microsoft's chairman will also be its CEO, after Bill Gates originally stepped down as CEO in 2000 (Gates left the Microsoft board entirely in 2020), and it's a testament to how much Nadella is now trusted to lead the company forward.
13 Bill Gates Microsoft Trades
Bill Gates's position in Microsoft is currently worth $12 Billion. It makes up 30.86% of their stock portfolio and is their biggest holding. The first Microsoft trade was made in Q2 2017. Since then Bill Gates bought shares two more times and sold shares on ten occasions.
What does Bill Gates have to do with Microsoft? ›
Inspired by the January cover of Popular Electronics magazine, friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft – sometimes Micro-Soft, for microprocessors and software – to develop software for the Altair 8800, an early personal computer.
Who is the most intelligent AI in the world? ›
Google DeepMind — AlphaGo
AlphaGo is considered to be one of the most intelligent AI systems in the industry due to its advanced capabilities and its ability to learn and adapt over time.
Who is the most powerful AI? ›
GPT-3 (OpenAI)
GPT-3 is said to be one of the most advanced language models ever made, trained on terabytes of data containing 175 billion parameters, compared to Turing NLG by Microsoft has 17 billion parameters.
Does Elon Musk believe in AI? ›
Musk said Monday night he supports government regulation into AI, even though “it's not fun to be regulated.” Once AI “may be in control,” it could be too late to place regulations, Musk said.
What AI company is Elon Musk investing in? ›
The billionaire was named as a director in a business-incorporation document filed in March for a new company called X.ai Corp. The move comes despite Musk recently signing an open letter calling for a pause in training more powerful systems, alongside various AI researchers.
What is the top AI stock to buy? ›
7 examples of AI companies to invest in
- NVIDIA (NVDA). ...
- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM). ...
- Meta Platforms (META). ...
- Amazon.com (AMZN). ...
- Microsoft (MSFT). ...
- Alphabet (GOOG). ...
- Snowflake (SNOW).
Musk is one of the co-founders of OpenAI, which was started as a non-profit in 2015.
What makes Bill Gates so smart? ›
Gates built his career on strong logic and mathematical skills, establishing himself as a brilliant coder with a knack for solving technical problems. But he admits he lacked other strengths, such as strong interpersonal skills.
What is the rarest type of intelligence? ›
Spatial intelligence or picture smart is a quality that is perhaps the rarest of all the nine Howard Gardner categorized. Human life is big, human intelligence is even bigger. It is impossible to categorize human intelligence.
Hawking, Gates and Einstein all have an IQ of 160.
What is the biggest threat of AI? ›
Risks of Artificial Intelligence
- Automation-spurred job loss.
- Privacy violations.
- Deepfakes.
- Algorithmic bias caused by bad data.
- Socioeconomic inequality.
- Market volatility.
- Weapons automatization.
Weak AI can outperform humans on the specific tasks it is designed for, but it operates under far more constraints than even the most basic human intelligence. All the AI that's available today can be considered weak AI. Meanwhile, strong AI does not exist yet.
Can AI take over the world? ›
It's unlikely that a single AI system or application could become so powerful as to take over the world. While the potential risks of AI may seem distant and theoretical, the reality is that we are already experiencing the impact of intelligent machines in our daily lives.
Can AI ever beat human intelligence? ›
The processing of data and commands is essential to the operation of AI-powered devices. When it comes to speed, humans are no match for artificial intelligence or robots.
What are humans better than AI at? ›
Humans are creative by nature and consequently find unique ways to solve problems, whereas AI produces results on the basis of algorithm only. It doesn't understand context, it only understands the relationship between given input and complex mathematical models.
Who will be most affected by AI? ›
According to the report, jobs in agriculture, mining and manufacturing are the least exposed to generative AI, while jobs in the information processing industries, like IT, are the most exposed because jobs that use "programming and writing skills" are more closely related to GPT's capabilities.
What country is most advanced in artificial intelligence? ›
The United States is the clear leader in AI development, with major tech companies headquartered there leading the charge. The United States has indisputably become the primary hub for artificial intelligence development, with tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft at the forefront of AI-driven research.
Who will rule the world in 2100? ›
Africa and the Arab World will shape our future, while Europe and Asia will recede in their influence. By the end of the century, the world will be multipolar, with India, Nigeria, China, and the US the dominant powers. This will truly be a new world and one we should be preparing for today.”
What to expect from AI in 2023? ›
In 2023, I expect to see continued momentum in AI investments, particularly among businesses most directly impacted by economic and supply chain disruptions, as well as mature industries generally able to scale AI adoption the most, such as financial services, retail, healthcare, and manufacturing.
In a landmark federal case, a lawsuit filed in 1998, Microsoft was eventually found to have repeatedly violated the nation's antitrust laws. Mr. Gates stepped aside as chief executive in 2000, after the antitrust ruling.
Who owns Microsoft besides Bill Gates? ›
Both of Microsoft's original founders eventually stepped back from the company; Allen died in 2018. Bill Gates currently owns 0.9% of the company. Because Microsoft is a public corporation, it is owned by its shareholders. The two biggest shareholders are companies called Vanguard and BlackRock.
Who owns Microsoft after Bill Gates? ›
Who owns majority of Microsoft? ›
Institutional investors hold a majority ownership of MSFT through the 72.55% of the outstanding shares that they control. This interest is also higher than at almost any other company in the Packaged Software industry.
Who owns majority of Microsoft stock? ›
The two largest Microsoft owners are asset management giants Vanguard and BlackRock. This is not surprising since Microsoft is a large mature company, and BlackRock and Vanguard are the largest asset managers in the world.
What if Bill Gates hadn t sold his Microsoft shares? ›
Gates's 1998 holding would have been valued Friday at about $693 billion, topping Musk's net worth of $340.4 billion and Bezos's net worth of $200.3 billion. He sold the vast majority of his Microsoft stock before leaving the board in 2020.
How rich would Bill Gates be if he didn't sell Microsoft? ›
Gates's 1998 holding would have been valued Friday at about $693 billion, topping Musk's net worth of $340.4 billion and Bezos's net worth of $200.3 billion. He sold the vast majority of his Microsoft stock before leaving the board in 2020.
How much of Bill Gates wealth is from Microsoft? ›
How much of Bill Gates money is from Microsoft? ›
He now owns just around 1 percent of Microsoft. Over the years, the billionaire has sold Microsoft shares for tens of billions of dollars. Despite owning this meagre shareholding in Microsoft, Gates is one of the richest tycoons in the world. He and his ex-wife Melinda Gates are the biggest names in the tech world.
What is the best AI right now? ›
The best overall AI chatbot is the new Bing due to its exceptional performance, versatility, and free availability. It uses OpenAI's cutting-edge GPT-4 language model, making it highly proficient in various language tasks, including writing, summarization, translation, and conversation.
Right now, it is clear that the United States leads in AI, with advantages in computing hardware and human talent that other countries cannot match.
Who is the most advanced AI robots in the world? ›
Ameca is the world's most advanced, most realistic humanoid robot created by Engineered Arts in 2021. Ameca's first video was released publicly on Dec 1, 2021, and received a lot of attention on Twitter and TikTok.
What is the new AI that will replace Google? ›
They're being developed under the codename “Magi.” The plans are part of Google's efforts to meet the threat posed by new systems like Microsoft's Bing chatbot and OpenAI's ChatGPT. Many think these chatbots could one day replace traditional search engines like Google — despite their failings.
Which is the most powerful OpenAI? ›
The Wait is Over: OpenAI Reveals GPT-4 — it's Most Powerful AI Language Model Yet. GPT-4 is a large multimodal model capable of accepting both image and text inputs and emitting text outputs, exhibiting human-level performance on various professional and academic benchmarks.
What is the most advanced technology in the world? ›
The most important Advanced Technology Trend for 2023 is the prominence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-based solutions.
Will AI become self aware? ›
The CEO of Alphabet's DeepMind said there's a possibility that AI could become self-aware one day. This means that AI would have feelings and emotions that mimic those of humans. DeepMind is an AI research lab that was co-founded in 2010 by Demis Hassabis.
Why Elon Musk opposes AI? ›
Key figures in artificial intelligence want training of powerful AI systems to be suspended amid fears of a threat to humanity. They have signed an open letter warning of potential risks, and say the race to develop AI systems is out of control.
What did Stephen Hawking say about AI? ›
I fear that AI may replace humans altogether. If people design computer viruses, someone will design AI that replicates itself. This will be a new form of life that will outperform humans.
What does Elon Musk say about AI? ›
“AI is more dangerous than, say, mismanaged aircraft design or production maintenance or bad car production, in the sense that it is, it has the potential — however small one may regard that probability, but it is non-trivial — it has the potential of civilization destruction,” Musk said in his interview with Tucker ...
What famous people said about AI? ›
“The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race….It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded.”
Google DeepMind — AlphaGo
AlphaGo is considered to be one of the most intelligent AI systems in the industry due to its advanced capabilities and its ability to learn and adapt over time.
What is the most powerful AI right now? ›
GPT-3 (OpenAI)
GPT-3 is said to be one of the most advanced language models ever made, trained on terabytes of data containing 175 billion parameters, compared to Turing NLG by Microsoft has 17 billion parameters.
What is the best quote about artificial intelligence? ›
“The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. […] It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded.”
What is the AI everyone is talking to? ›
ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence language model from OpenAI, has been making headlines since November for its ability to instantly respond to complex questions. It can write poetry, generate code, plan vacations and translate languages, among other tasks, all within seconds.
What can AI do that humans Cannot? ›
AI can filter email spam, categorize and classify documents based on tags or keywords, launch or defend against missile attacks, and assist in complex medical procedures. However, if people feel that AI is unpredictable and unreliable, collaboration with this technology can be undermined by an inherent distrust of it.
Will AI control the world? ›
It's unlikely that a single AI system or application could become so powerful as to take over the world. While the potential risks of AI may seem distant and theoretical, the reality is that we are already experiencing the impact of intelligent machines in our daily lives.
Why is AI a threat to humanity? ›
AI systems may find loopholes that allow them to accomplish their proxy goals efficiently but in unintended, sometimes harmful ways (reward hacking). AI systems may also develop unwanted instrumental strategies such as seeking power or survival because this helps them achieve their given goals.
Who is trying to stop AI? ›
Elon Musk signed the letter to stop AI
Elon Musk wants AI to stop its development asap, but not just him, recently he signed a letter from Future of life institute that claims to pause AI, he and many well-known tech people are scared about the rush of AI.
