Recently, Bill Gates, chairman of the Gates Foundation, said in a small-scale conversation with Sina Technology before the release that the foundation will invest 1 billion US dollars over the next two years to promote the development of artificial intelligence, making cutting-edge technology no longer serve only the rich but help the poorest regions change their fate. Meanwhile, he also shared his views on hot topics such as the global large model landscape, computing power carbon emissions, and Chinese humanoid robots.

When discussing the competition among global large models, Gates pointed out that according to different criteria, both China and the United States currently have four or more institutions whose models can remain among the most advanced in the world, and the gap between the top-performing models and the other seven leading models is not significant. He believes that the performance of the world's top eight large models has exceeded the best level from four months ago, and China and the United States are in a "super competition" where talent and computing power are constantly catching up. This competition provides low-income countries with options that are both high-performing and affordable.

Regarding the value of open-source technology, Gates emphasized that open-source models offer great flexibility, allowing low-income countries like Africa to focus their limited resources on truly localized aspects. Currently, models in Africa can even run remotely using servers from Chinese partners, and the latency is completely acceptable. He called on technologically advanced countries to each allocate 5% of their data center computing power for "digital aid," providing it free of charge to poor countries for use in healthcare, agriculture, and education. However, he also admitted that the high memory demand of AI data centers has inadvertently increased the price of smartphones in low-income countries, making high-quality AI applications difficult to be widely used on feature phones.

When discussing the controversy over carbon emissions, Gates acknowledged that some data centers in the United States using natural gas for power have indeed increased carbon emissions, by about 3% to 4%, which is regrettable. But he believes that in the long term, AI's benefits to the global climate outweigh its drawbacks. Not only do most new data centers use closed-loop water circulation designs, but AI is also helping drive the energy revolution. For example, its subsidiary TerraPower is using AI models to reduce the cost of nuclear fission construction. In addition, he expressed admiration for China's achievements in energy transition, where the installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation has exceeded coal power for the first time.

Regarding the impact of AI on the job market, Gates stated that we will experience about 20 years of turbulent transformation before AI and robots become powerful enough to allow humans to reduce working hours or retire early. He previously suggested that positions requiring human warmth should be reserved for humans, and proposed taxing tech companies with a Token tax to subsidize ordinary people. During the conversation, Gates also mentioned with interest the recent "humanoid robot Olympics" held in China, saying, "It was very interesting and well organized. Just the event itself was unbelievable." He pointed out that the Chinese pay more attention to humanoid robots. If in the future, robots can be cheap enough to replace humans in construction and manufacturing, it would be a good thing for productivity, but society must also properly support and assist the manual workers affected by this change.

In the end, Gates reiterated the foundation's plan to exhaust all its assets and officially close by 2045, calling on governments and the tech industry worldwide to take on a sense of mission, making cutting-edge technology truly practical, affordable, and accessible, so that no one is left behind in this technological transformation.