Microsoft (MS) co-founder Bill Gates: AI “will surpass humans in math and other fields ... the next 20 years are a critical juncture”

[Financial News] Bill Gates, the Microsoft (MS) co-founder who often voiced skepticism about artificial intelligence (AI) in the past, predicted that AI would surpass humans in certain fields within the next 20 years. He said the next 20 years would be the most tumultuous period in history.
In an interview with the British outlet The Observer on the 25th (local time), Gates said, “AI is an ‘evolutionary event’”—“a change that shifts the stage for life on Earth, like the evolution from monkeys to humans.” He said, “The most intelligent being is being redefined,” explaining that humans are no longer the most intelligent beings on Earth and that AI is taking their place.
Gates said that mathematicians’ heyday would continue for about the next five years thanks to AI, but that at some point within the next 20 years, “AI will become superior to humans in math, biology, engineering design and other fields. We are at a very dramatic point in history.”
Gates also said he could feel AI catching up even in his own area of expertise. “Around the end of last year, I realized that my coding skills, which I had been obsessed with since I was 13, had essentially become useless,” he said, adding that humans can no longer become the world’s best coders. He predicted, “Humanoids will replace human physical labor, office work, and even the skills needed for invention.”
That day, Gates appeared on the U.S. IT podcast Decoder and repeated similar views. He predicted that AI would create true abundance, but that the next 20 years would be “the most tumultuous period in human history.”
“My biggest concern is a 20-year transition in which winners and losers emerge and considerable turmoil ensues,” Gates said, warning that “human labor will no longer be needed at all for most goods and services.” He added, “Even if AI does things better, activities such as art, sports, cooking and childcare can remain uniquely human domains,” and urged politicians to give thought to how to make that possible.
Last month, Gates also warned in an interview with NBC in the United States that “AI is powerful enough to trigger events that could certainly cause a billion deaths.” Appearing on the U.S. podcast The Ezra Klein Show on the 30th of last month, he said, “The AI industry’s self-regulation cannot be trusted,” adding, “That’s really crazy.” He went on to stress, “AI is the most dangerous thing humanity has encountered so far.”
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