With the emergence of artificial intelligence-powered chat products like ChatGPT, many people are wondering what tasks AI can do as well as humans.
Now, you can add “Bill Gates interview” to that list. Recently, the billionaire founder of Microsoft sat down with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as two questions were answered by an AI chatbot.
In a video posted to YouTube by Sunak’s office last month, the British leader read AI-generated questions to Gates, including one asking what advice the billionaire would offer his younger self if he “could go back in time.”
“I am, kind of, very strong,” Gates replied, lamenting his young workaholic. “I don’t believe in weekends. I don’t believe in vacations.”
While Gates’ early intensity may have helped him build Microsoft into a multibillion-dollar tech giant — amassing a net worth that now stands at $105.2 billion, according to Forbes — he says it also made him socially awkward as a leader.
“I have a narrow view of working style, speaking style,” he said, adding that in hindsight, he might have hired someone who “probably could have helped me, [but] it just doesn’t fit” with the intense atmosphere created around it.
In past interviews, Gates also said that he would have told his younger self to “read a lot” and “explore the developing world” as a traveler. The billionaire has also been very open about his introversion in his youth, calling himself “reckless” in a 2019 Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session.
Gates’ intensity earned him a reputation as a difficult boss to work with in Microsoft’s early years. He has previously admitted that he is a demanding boss who sometimes speaks harshly to his employees, and that his attitude is a reflection of the high standards he holds for everyone, including himself.
“I never asked [Microsoft employees] to work harder, or harder to fight against mistakes, than myself, “said Gates to the podcast “Expert Chair” in 2020. , at least you reflect your own values and try to make everyone as hardcore as you are.”
Ultimately, Gates will have to learn to lighten up, Sunak said — especially as Microsoft grows.
“For a small, early Microsoft group, that’s fine,” Gates said. “But, as we got bigger, I had to realize that, OK, when you’ve got a sales team, when you’ve got people with families, you have to think about it. It’s a long-term thing.”
And if he could go back in time to change anything, the wiser Gates would “help me try to figure it out faster than I did,” he said.
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