Billionaire tech mogul Bill Gates wants to help solve many problems: polio eradication, water disinfection and agricultural development, to name a few. But he worries about the misinformation being passed on to future generations.
The Microsoft co-founder said misinformation is a problem and we’re “handing it off to the younger generation.”
In an interview with CNBC Make It, Gates, who is worth $118 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, said he naively believed that “when we provide information, people will want the right information.”
Gates himself is a high-profile figure, and his family is closely watched. His daughter Phoebe, in particular, has struggled with online harassment.
“Hearing my daughter talk about how she’s been harassed online, and how her friends have experienced it multiple times, made me focus on this in a way I never thought about before,” Gates, a father of three, continued.
Gates’ youngest daughter – the co-founder of AI shopping tool Phia – has previously spoken out about the misunderstandings surrounding her family and relationships, including being “ridiculed for being in an interracial relationship.”
An Internet meme is an image or video that spreads online, usually intended to be humorous.
Although it is Gates is aware of how misinformation spreads online, and he said he can understand why certain audiences would flock to platforms with misinformation. Reflect their opinions – a phenomenon known as confirmation bias.
“We have a background of needing the right information, just like when we need medical advice,” Gates said. “But we kind of like having these common perspectives in our communities and enclaves that unite us.”
He explained: “Even I get addicted to it. Let’s say there’s a politician I don’t like and there are some articles online criticizing him. I think, ‘Oh, that’s a good criticism, [and] I enjoyed reading it even though it was a bit exaggerated. “
Artificial intelligence can help curb misinformation
Gates’ probing questions about how to control the spread of misinformation online may not sit well with billionaire Elon Musk.
“We should have free speech,” Gates said in the interview. “But if you incite violence, if you cause people to not get vaccinated, then where are those lines? Even the United States should have rules, so if you have rules, what are they? Is it artificial intelligence that encodes those rules? You have billions of activity, and if you catch it a day later, the damage has been done.”
This isn’t the first time Gates has proposed emerging technology as a tool to combat misinformation and deepfakes (images and videos that are extremely realistic but not real).
In July 2023, the co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation wrote in a blog post on his website GatesNotes: “It will be a cyclical process: someone finds a way to detect fraud, someone finds a way to deal with it, someone develops countermeasures, and so on.
“It’s not going to be a perfect success, but we’re not going to sit on our hands.”
Elon Musk’s thoughts on free speech
Musk, the CEO of Tesla and owner of X (the platform formerly known as Twitter), is a free speech absolutist who is unlikely to appreciate the concept of imposing rules on his or others’ speech.
Musk considers free speech “a cornerstone of democracy” and has vowed to fight apparent censorship of his platform.
That said, the debate over how to control misinformation isn’t the first time Musk and Gates’ views have diverged. For example, in July 2024, Musk threatened that Gates would be “erased” for his apparent bearishness on Tesla stock. wealth It could not be confirmed whether Gates still holds a short position in the electric car maker.
Likewise, Gates said he has a better management style than Musk – and he thinks Musk’s boss may be “pushing too hard.” Musk, meanwhile, claimed Gates doesn’t understand artificial intelligence and said his insight into the topic is “limited.”
Tech giants have recently feuded over Musk’s job at the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE). In January 2025, Gates said he hoped some of the foreign aid and personnel cuts planned by DOGE could be rolled back: “I think Elon said, ‘Yes, we made a mistake, we went too far,’ but… what’s the balance? How many people can be retained so that we can continue to save tens of millions of lives?” Gates also accused Musk of some “crazy” political interference in 2025.
In November, Musk reignited the feud between the two men, writing on
It appears misinformation may be just another of the many topics on which billionaires must agree while resolving differences.
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A version of this article was first published on September 5, 2024.
This story originally appeared on Fortune.com
