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“Misinformation is the one where I — a little bit — had to punt and say, ‘Okay, we’ve handed this problem to the younger generation,’” Gates, 68, said during an interview with CNBC published on Thursday.
Misinformation has been a concern almost since the advent of the internet. There was a global reckoning around the issue after the 2016 US election. But the problem has only intensified as technology advances. False claims on social media are now harder than ever to spot, thanks in part to artificial intelligence.
A 2023 Pew Research Center survey found that 65% of American adults believe tech companies should do more to restrict false information and violent content online.
But Gates, one of the most influential tech entrepreneurs of all time, said he doesn’t have the answer.
“We should have free speech,” he told CNBC. “But if you’re inciting violence, if you’re causing people not to take vaccines, where are those boundaries?”
He added: “Even the US should have rules, and then if you have rules, what is it? Is there some AI that encodes those rules? You have billions in activity, and if you catch it a day later, the harm is done.”
Gates’ experience with misinformation is personal. He was the subject of several prominent conspiracy theories related to vaccines and other intervention measures during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
One conspiracy theory that gained attention during the pandemic claimed Gates put microchips in vaccines to track people.
Gates told CNET that a woman once confronted him about that conspiracy theory on the street.
“I really don’t need to track you in particular,” he said he told the woman.
It has also affected his youngest daughter, Phoebe, who spoke out against “misconceptions and conspiracy theories” during an interview with The Information last March.
ANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images
“Hearing my daughter talk about how she’d been harassed online, and how her friends experienced that quite a bit, brought that into focus in a way that I hadn’t thought about before,” he told CNBC.
Gates, who cofounded Microsoft in 1975, told CNBC he initially believed people would use computers and the internet responsibly.
“You know, my naivete that when we made information available, people would want correct information,” he said.
Gates added that people will seek out “correct information” for things like medical advice but can also fall victim to confirmation bias.
“Even I will wallow. Let’s say there’s a politician I don’t like, and there’s some article online criticizing him a little bit,” he told CNBC. “I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s such a good critique [and] I enjoyed reading it, even if it was exaggerated.’”
Representatives for Gates did not immediately respond to Business a request for comment from Business Insider.
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