Gates: OpenAI’s GPT model is “the most important advance in technology since the graphical user interface.”

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates has described OpenAI’s GPT AI model as the most significant technological development since the introduction of the modern graphical user interface in 1980.

In a GatesNotes blog post titled “The Age of AI has begun,”, Gates explained that before the GUI, computers were operated via a command line, but GUI technology enabled Windows to be created, and revolutionized software usage. (CNBC)

Gates sees parallels between the GUI’s impact and OpenAI’s GPT models, which can generate human-like text and nearly usable computer code. In a test last September, OpenAI’s GPT achieved the maximum score in the Advanced Placement Biology exam.

Gates believes AI’s development is as significant as the creation of the microprocessor, personal computer, internet and mobile phone, and will alter how people work, learn, communicate, travel and receive healthcare, with entire industries transforming in response.

AI will enhance productivity, according to Gates: “As computing power gets cheaper, GPT’s ability to express ideas will increasingly be like having a white-collar worker available to help you with various tasks.”

“Eventually your main way of controlling a computer will no longer be pointing and clicking or tapping on menus and dialogue boxes. Instead, you’ll be able to write a request in plain English.”

In healthcare, AI could free up workers from drudge work including filing insurance claims, dealing with paperwork, and drafting notes from a doctor’s visit. AI will also hugely accelerate the rate of medical breakthroughs such drug discovery, including for cancer.

Gates suggests that AI’s potential benefits, including improved education and healthcare for the developing world, mean that governments and philanthropies should fund its development.

Gates joins other technology leaders such as Jeff Bezos and Eric Schmidt in highlighting the significance of AI advances for the technology industry, while current CEOs, including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, believe AI presents major business opportunities.

“I’m lucky to have been involved with the PC revolution and the Internet revolution,” writes Gates. “I’m just as excited about this moment.”

Gates and Microsoft have close links with OpenAI, with Microsoft investing $10 billion in the startup and selling some of its AI software through Azure cloud services.

Related Story:  Microsoft To Weave AI Into Its Office Software

Image of Bill Gates: Flickr