- Bill Gates said that AI will replace doctors, teachers, mental health professionals and more within the next 10 years while appearing on The Tonight Show to promote his debut memoir Source Code
- The Microsoft co-founder also said with the increased role of AI, humans will not be needed for “most things”
- Gates remains optimistic about the future of AI, however, especially with regards to health and climate
Artificial intelligence will likely replace doctors, teachers and more professionals within the decade, according to Bill Gates.
While sharing his vision for the future of artificial intelligence (AI) on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last month, the Microsoft co-founder — who is one of the world’s most famous businessmen and philanthropists — said that soon, humans won’t be needed “for most things.”
In the Feb. 4 Tonight Show appearance to promote Gates’ debut memoir Source Code, host Jimmy Fallon asked the billionaire, 69, to give his two cents on the hot-button topic of AI, explaining the pros and cons in “layman’s terms” — and he obliged.
“So the era we’ve come to is sort of the vision that computing was expensive and it basically became free,” Gates said. “The era that we’re just starting is that intelligence is rare, you know, a great doctor, a great teacher. And with AI, over the next decade, that will become free. Commonplace, you know? Great medical advice, great tutoring.”
Bill Gates and Jimmy Fallon on ‘The Tonight Show’ on Feb. 4, 2025.
Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty
“And it’s kind of profound,” the tech billionaire continued, “because it solves all these specific problems, like, we don’t have enough doctors or, you know, mental health professionals.”
But, he explained, this so-called influx of intelligence also “brings with it so much change,” begging questions like, “What will jobs be like?” and “Should we just work like two or three days a week?”
“So I love the way it’ll drive innovation forward, but I think it’s a little bit unknown,” Gates said before posing a question many have asked about the future role of AI: “Will we be able to shape it?”
“And so, legitimately, people are like, ‘Wow, this is a bit scary.’ It’s completely new territory,” he added.
Along with an increase of AI across professions, the Microsoft co-founder also envisions a diminished role for humans, he told Fallon, 50. “I mean, will we still need humans?” Fallon asked, to which Gates replied, “Not for most things.”
But, ultimately, “we’ll decide” what the continued role of humans will be, he said.
“You know, like baseball. We won’t want to watch computers play baseball,” Gates said. “So there’ll be some things that we reserve for ourselves, but in terms of making things and moving things, and growing food, over time, those will be basically solved problems.”
Elsewhere in his Tonight Show appearance, Fallon asked the billionaire what keeps him optimistic, “and what could you tell everyone to stay optimistic about the future?”
Gates’ answer? “The ability to improve health,” from Alzheimer’s disease to polio, as well as the potential for innovation that can improve the global climate.
“There’s a lot of great stuff coming along,” the philanthropist said. “So I’m a little more optimistic about that than people who don’t get to see that innovation pipeline.”
Gates appeared on the talk show to promote Source Code, the first installment of a planned trilogy of memoirs that covers Gates’ childhood and young adulthood.
Speaking with PEOPLE about the book, which hit shelves on Feb. 4, Gates said, “Generally I’m totally focused on what’s coming next, the next innovation, but a few years ago I realized that 2025 would be the year I turned 70, the year that Microsoft turns 50 and the year that the Gates Foundation turns 25.”
This realization, he told us, led him to think about how, “through luck and a variety of things, my parents and early friends put me in a position to have a wonderful life and be extremely lucky and be at the center of the digital revolution.” And so, he thought to himself, “reflecting on that would be good for me.”
