Bill Gates says top AI agent will replace search, shopping sites
Microsoft founder Bill Gates reacts during a visit with Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of the Imperial College University, in London, Britain, February 15, 2023. Justin Tallis//Pool via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
SAN FRANCISCO, May 22 (Reuters) - Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) co-founder, on Monday said the technology race to win is the development of the top artificially intelligent agent, poised to disrupt search-engine, productivity and online shopping sites.
"You’ll never go to a search site again," he said. "You’ll never go to Amazon."
Speaking at AI Forward 2023, an event in San Francisco hosted by Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) and SV Angel, Gates said it would disappoint him if Microsoft were not in the running, though there was a 50% chance the top player to emerge will be a startup.
Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Gates said Inflection AI, co-founded by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman, impressed him.
Various industry players have worked on building a computer assistant, powered by AI, that consumers can command by speech or text to handle a range of tasks for them.
"Whoever wins the personal agent, that’s a big thing," Gates said.
Sign up here.
Reporting By Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
