Melinda Gates says she’s ‘very nervous’ AI will be biased without women developers

Melinda French Gates has shared she is ‘very nervous about artificial intelligence‘ being ‘baked with bias’ because there is a lack of women developing such tools.

The comments appear to take a jab at ex-husband Bill Gates, 67, who is leading the charge for the systems and has faced sexual harassment allegations from former female staff.

‘We don’t have enough women who are computer scientists and expertise in artificial intelligence,’ French Gates, 58, told CNN Thursday.

She continued to explain that the tech needs to ‘take all people’s points of view and see society and, quite frankly, see the world writ large as it is.’

The comments are the first time she has spoken about the systems her ex-husband believes are ‘as revolutionary as mobile phones and the internet.’ 

Melinda French Gates spoke with CNN about how she is ‘very nervous’ about AI being baked with bias. She said more women need to be involved in developing systems

The Wall Street Journal revealed in 2021 that two top executives at Microsoft reportedly told Gates to stop sending flirtatious emails to a female employee he had propositioned while he was CEO and married to French Gates more than a decade ago.

The 2008 emails from Gates were sent to a midlevel employee at the software giant. 

And Microsoft executives later discovered them. Gates reportedly agreed to stop corresponding with the woman.

Microsoft announced in 2022 that it hired a law firm to review how the company handled sexual harassment allegations against some of its top executives, including Gates.

Gates was accused of soliciting at least two employees while he was running the tech giant, according to The New York Times.

In at least one instance, in 2007, it reports that Gates sat through a presentation by a Microsoft employee, then promptly emailed her asking for a date. 

He reportedly wrote: ‘If this makes you uncomfortable, pretend it never happened.’

The Gates’ divorced last year after 27 years of marriage, during which he was rumored to have had at least one affair with a Russian bridge player. 

French Gates has continued her work as a philanthropist and woman’s advocate, which sparked the conversation about AI Thursday.

Her comments followed a discussion on the need for more women in public office. 

‘When you have women creating something, making a decision or setting that law, you are bringing that perspective of the society that is so vitally important,’ she said while explaining her life after divorce as ‘joyful.’

In March, Gates, 67, shared his support for the progress of artificial intelligence, proclaiming the ChatGPT-like technology.

While brief, it was the first time she’d spoken about the systems her ex-husband Bill Gates believes are ‘as revolutionary as mobile phones and the internet’

He believes ‘the rise of AI’ is poised to improve humanity, increase productivity, reduce worldwide inequalities, and accelerate the development of new vaccines.

Gates has acknowledged that AI will likely be ‘so disruptive [that it] is bound to make people uneasy’ because it ‘raises hard questions about the workforce, privacy, bias, and more.’

French Gates did not seem as hopeful about AI in the CNN interview but is optimistic that women could change the tech’s predicted bias path.

The current powerhouses in the AI industry are OpenAI, Microsoft and Google – all of which have men at the helm.

However, French Gates did not provide details on how women’s points of view would improve the tech.

Musk has made moves to stop the dangers of AI from becoming a reality.

In March, the SpaceX CEO and more than 1,000 other tech leaders signed an open letter detailing potential risks to society and civilization by human-competitive AI systems in the form of economic and political disruptions – and called on developers to work with policymakers on governance and regulatory authorities.

This would be possible if AI reaches singularity, a hypothetical future where technology surpasses human intelligence and changes the path of our evolution – and this is predicted to happen by 2045. 

AI would first have to pass the Turing Test.

When it does, the technology is considered to have independent intelligence, allowing it to self-replicate into an even more powerful system that humans cannot control.

The concerned tech leaders asked all AI labs to stop developing their products for at least six months while more risk assessment is done.

In March, the SpaceX CEO and more than 1,000 other tech leaders signed an open letter detailing potential risks to society and civilization by human-competitive AI systems. This will happen if AI reaches singularity, which is predicted to happen by 2045

If any labs refuse, they want governments to ‘step in.’ Musk fears that the technology will become so advanced that it will no longer require – or listen to – human interference.

Gates and Google CEO Sundar Pichai did not sign the letter.

Many have questioned whether a personal vendetta between Musk and Gates, who have argued over climate change and the COVID pandemic, is part of the rift in Silicon Valley. But Musk has been warning about the dangers of AI for years. 

Some speculate Musk opposes the technology because they are not leading the charge. 

Musk founded OpenAI with Sam Altman, the company’s CEO, but in 2018 the billionaire attempted to take control of the startup.

His request was rejected, forcing him to quit OpenAI and move on with his other projects.

Musk has recently slammed ChatGPT as ‘woke’ and deviating from OpenAI’s original non-profit mission.

‘OpenAI was created as an open source (which is why I named it ‘Open’ AI), non-profit company to serve as a counterweight to Google, but now it has become a closed source, maximum-profit company effectively controlled by Microsoft, Musk tweeted in February.