At IIT Delhi, Bill Gates shares optimism about future

During his keynote address on “Innovation for Public Good”, Gates said, “I am looking at India in a far broader way. I’m lucky enough, through the work of the foundation, to look at innovators who can help with all kinds of problems — starting with health, but also agriculture, gender and climate. We need fantastic Indian innovation.”

Addressing students at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, Gates encouraged them to leverage technology for social good. “Not only should you consider your career in terms of financial impact, although that is important but also whatever role you take on, do consider how that relates to achieving social equality,” he said.

Gates Foundation India Thursday wrote on X, “@BillGates shares his optimism about the future at @iitdelhi- “I’ll bet when I come back here, say it’s 5 years from now, some of you will be able to tell me about new technologies you have created- to inspire students, to help farmers, to solve healthcare problems, and to help us with climate”.

Gates asserted that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the most transformative technology he has seen and shared with the students, “Another place that India leads, but there’s a lot more that all of you can be involved in driving forward, is this Digital Public Infrastructure. No country is more able to take government benefits and get them out efficiently and effectively to their citizens that India.”

Noting that Artificial intelligence is the most transformative technology he has seen in his lifetime, Gates said, “If I was a student today, the mysteries of AI would draw me in. It is kind of weird that even the systems that are working so well, we don’t really understand them. I would definitely be drawn to that.”

Prior to this, Gates visited Odisha Wednesday where he met with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. During his visit, Gates interacted with residents of slum areas to review the initiatives undertaken by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in the region.

Gates recently visited the Microsoft India Development Center (IDC), an innovation centre envisioned by him in 1988. This year, the IDC is celebrating its 25th year of ground-breaking research, engineering, and development.

The centre, based in Hyderabad, Telangana, is integral to its world-class products such as Azure, Windows, Office, Bing, Copilot, and other AI applications.