--- title: "Bill Gates Says AI Will Be Teaching Kids to Read in 18 Months" description: "Bill Gates is, as he has repeatedly said in public, very, very excited about the AI future that his company is ushering in." date: "2023-04-26" modified: "2023-04-26" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/bill-gates-ai-teaching-reading" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "Bill Gates" - "billionaires" - "machine learning" - "the digest" --- # Bill Gates Says AI Will Be Teaching Kids to Read in 18 Months ![Bill Gates is, as he has repeatedly said in public, very, very excited about the AI future that his company is ushering in.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Read My Lips It appears that one of the world's foremost tech billionaires is going all in on artificial intelligence. As[ *CNBC* reports](), Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates predicted that during the next few years, AIs will "be as good a tutor as any human ever could." "At first, we’ll be most stunned by how it helps with reading — being a reading research assistant — and giving you feedback on writing," he told a crowd during his keynote speech at a [digital learning conference in San Diego]() last week. "If you just took the next 18 months, the AIs will come in as a teacher’s aide and give feedback on writing," he continued. "And then they will amp up what we’re able to do in math." ## Bill & AI 4Eva It's far from the first time that Gates has voiced his excitement over the tech. Just last month, [Gates wrote on his blog]() that "the age of AI has begun," called OpenAI's GPT large language model "revolutionary," and predicted that "whatever limitations \[AI\] has today will be gone before we know it." Nearly two decades before OpenAI released its blockbuster AI chatbot and scored a [lucrative Microsoft deal](), Gates talked up the then-futuristic-sounding field of machine learning [to the ]()*[New York Times]().* "If you invent a breakthrough in artificial intelligence, so machines can learn, that is worth ten Microsofts," he told the paper back in 2004. ## Investible Then in 2019, Gates [invested in the startup Luminous](), which is building a [light-based AI accelerator chip]() that will purportedly power the supercomputers necessary to sustain the AIs of the future. If his comments in recent months are any indication, it's clear that Gates believes we really are on the precipice of a true quantum leap in AI tech — and while he feels like the outlook is rosy, it's hard to say whether or not we agree with him. **More on the collision of billionaires and AI:** [*AI Shows What Mark Zuckerberg Would Look Like Living in Poverty*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()