Bill Gates shares secrets about A.I. chatbots

In a keynote talk at the ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates predicted that within 18 months, AI chatbots will be able to help children learn to read and improve their writing skills. Gates expects the impact of this technology to be so impressive that people will be left "stunned" by the results. The billionaire co-founder of Microsoft spoke at the ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego and stated that A.I. chatbots will soon be as effective as human tutors in their ability to teach. OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard are two examples of chatbots that have been developed rapidly in recent months and are now able to match human-level intelligence on certain standardized tests. The growth of A.I. chatbots has led to both excitement about their potential and concerns about potential negative consequences.

Bill Gates is among those who are impressed by the latest advancements in AI chatbots. These chatbots have remarkable fluency in reading and writing, which will soon enable them to assist students in improving their own reading and writing abilities in ways that were previously impossible through technology, according to Gates. Initially, the most impressive impact of chatbots will be in the area of reading, where they will function as research assistants and provide feedback on writing. Historically, teaching writing skills has been a challenging task for computers. When teachers assess essays, they look for qualities such as narrative structure and clear prose, which are high-cognitive exercises that are difficult for developers to replicate in code, as Gates pointed out. However, advocates of AI chatbots argue that their ability to recognize and generate language that is human-like changes this dynamic.

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Last month, Kevin Roose, a tech columnist for the New York Times, shared that he had already utilized ChatGPT to enhance his writing by leveraging the AI's capability to quickly search through online style guides. Some scholars have expressed admiration for chatbots' aptitude in summarizing text and providing feedback, and even producing complete essays.

Nonetheless, these same scholars warn that the technology is not yet mature and can inadvertently introduce significant errors or misinformation. Moreover, before chatbots can become effective tutors, AI technology must improve its capacity to read and generate human-like language in order to better engage students, as Gates observed.

Gates added, "If you just look at the next 18 months, the AIs will function as an assistant to teachers and provide feedback on writing. Then they will advance what we are capable of doing in mathematics." It may come as a surprise that chatbots will initially outperform in reading and writing, as algebra and calculus are frequently utilized to develop AI technology.

According to experts, chatbots that rely on extensive datasets often struggle with mathematical computations. Although the chatbot can provide a solution if a solved math equation already exists within the datasets, calculating its own solution is a different matter altogether.

Gates has asked Microsoft AI developers why chatbots can't perform simple calculations or even multiply numbers, and the response has been that AI needs improved reasoning skills to handle the complexity of a mathematical calculation.

Gates is optimistic that the technology will improve in the near future, possibly within two years. This could lead to private tutoring becoming accessible to a wider range of students who would otherwise be unable to afford it.

However, this does not imply that tutoring services will be free. While ChatGPT and Bing currently offer limited free versions, ChatGPT Plus, a $20-per-month subscription plan, was introduced in February.

Gates believes that although it may not be completely free, AI-powered tutoring will be more affordable and accessible than traditional one-on-one tutoring with a human instructor.

According to Gates, access to a tutor is too expensive for most students, and the advantage of AI tutoring is that it can adapt and remember all the work a student has done, as well as analyze their entire body of work to provide feedback. This, he believes, will be a significant leveler in terms of access to quality education.