- Bill Gates thinks AI could become so advanced that no one would need to use search engines.
- Gates said AI firms would likely create a personal digital agent, ending the need to use some sites.
Bill Gates says AI development could reach a point where no one would need to use search engines and productivity sites, or shop online.
Speaking at AI Forward, a San Francisco event hosted by Goldman Sachs Group and SV Angel, Gates said top AI companies would likely create a personal digital agent, which would wipe out the need for some popular sites.
"Whoever wins the personal agent, that's the big thing, because you will never go to a search site again, you will never go to a productivity site, you'll never go to Amazon again," he said, per CNBC.
One way that such an agent could perform time-saving tasks would be to help them "read the stuff you don't have time to read," CNBC reported.
Gates added that he hoped Microsoft would be in the running to develop this kind of technology, but there was also a 50% chance the future leader in AI would be a startup, Reuters reported. He said that the technology was still a long way from being ready for mainstream use.
Representatives for Gates did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside normal working hours.
In March, the Microsoft cofounder published a seven-page letter — "The Age of AI has Begun" — which outlined some of his views on AI.
He wrote that developing the technology was "as fundamental as the creation of the microprocessor, the personal computer, the internet, and the mobile phone."