Bill Gates pushes for ‘smart use’ of AI as his foundation builds more representative language data

Bill Gates told his foundation’s Goalkeepers gathering that “increased generosity” and “the smart use of AI” together could accelerate the fight against inequality, urging the world’s richest countries to expand international aid and apply artificial intelligence towards what he considers “life-saving innovations”.

“We failed to build in the right human values and ways of keeping our moral code controlling what these AIs do,” Gates, the foundation’s chair, said during a Monday conversation with political commentator Van Jones at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York.

The Gates Foundation’s annual event, usually hosted the week of the United Nations’ high-level meetings, opened with a reminder: 26 of the world’s 34 wealthiest nations decreased development aid to poorer countries last year. Meanwhile, the UN has warned that progress on its Sustainable Development Goals — lofty targets to reduce poverty, improve health and protect the environment by 2030 — is “slow and uneven”.