Bill Gates says he is very impressed with China's AI growth

Bill Gates has expressed his admiration for China's rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) during an interview in New York. Despite the US government warning American companies about China's growing strength in AI, Gates stated that both nations have four or more institutions with models capable of maintaining state-of-the-art performance. He described the rivalry between China and the US as a "super competition" over AI talent and computing power.

The Gates Foundation has committed at least $1 billion over the next two years to bring AI tools to poorer countries, focusing on healthcare, education, and agriculture. The foundation aims to provide more high-performing AI models to low-income nations, including those in Africa, to enable them to access cheaper AI tools. Open-source AI models offer "great flexibility," Gates explained, as they allow African countries to utilize servers from Chinese partners for remote AI model processing.

Gates suggested that China and the US should allocate around 5% of their data-center computing power for use by poorer nations, comparing it to foreign aid. This computing power could support healthcare, agriculture, and education. He emphasized the importance of establishing a basic level of AI access so that people worldwide can benefit from the technology.

The Gates Foundation plans to invest $400 million in healthcare AI tools, $400 million in education tools, $100 million in agriculture tools, and $100 million in building language datasets currently underrepresented in AI systems.