Bill Gates Predicts AI Will Destroy The Internet

Bill Gates says that eventually a company will create an AI tool that will replace the Internet.

By Jessica Goudreault | Updated

Bill Gates

People everywhere are concerned about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) as we all navigate how this new technology will impact our everyday lives. Bill Gates has weighed in on how it can significantly impact the internet. The co-founder of Microsoft believes that a large tech company will create such a profound AI tool that people will no longer need to use search engines or productivity sites, says CNBC.

Currently, people are using tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT to write emails and essays as well as learn new skills and easily find information. Others are using OpenAI’s Dall-E 2 to create computer graphics or using Midjourney to create never before seen AI-generated images, like the Harry Potter cast as cute but creepy babies. It feels like there are endless possibilities for new, creative ideas with AI which both excites and terrifies people.

During an event from Goldman Sachs and SV Angel, Bill Gates shared his thoughts and concerns about the future of AI, specifically about the development of an AI personal assistant. He feels that, with the right technology, a company could create an AI assistant that could monitor a person’s needs and habits. This would give people more free time by allowing them only to get the information they need, rather than sifting through content they don’t have to read.

For instance, rather than having to searching for movies that Nicolas Cage starred in during the 1990s, a user could just ask their AI personal assistant. The tool would then report back (in seconds) with the list of the movies, giving the user exactly what they needed without having to read through any articles or conduct their own research. This is just one simple example, but the possibilities are endless.

detect AI
Data, Star Trek’s best example of artificial intelligence, could tell you all you want about Nicolas Cage’s movies.

As Bill Gates suggests, this should set off alarm bells for companies like Google and Amazon, which rely heavily on users to search their platforms. If searches become automated thanks to an AI personal assistant tool, then these huge companies could collapse and cause ripple effects throughout the entire internet.

So, who could develop this sort of technology? Bill Gates thinks a startup or a tech giant will have the skills needed to create the future AI personal assistant.

If it’s not going to be Microsoft, then he thinks Inflection.AI (an AI studio co-founded by a former DeepMind executive) could be a possible candidate. The company already has a personal AI assistant named Pi, who users can chat with about anything and everything, from fun trivia to venting about personal problems to quantum physics. Pi knows your name and remembers all of your conversations but does not have access to your personal data or browsing activity.

While there are certainly positive things that can come from AI, people are also very worried that the technology could cause more harm than good. There are fears of misinformation, cybersecurity breaches, and the eventual post-apocalyptic Terminator-esque future where robots rule the world and humans are their slaves.

At least if things start to take a negative turn for AI, we’ve got Bill Gates and other geniuses that can hopefully help us out.