If I had a switch to slow down AI, I might use it: Bill Gates on technology, giving, resilience

But the tech's positive impact is incalculable, says billionaire philanthropist who points to its use in health discovery and other causes.

- Ravi Velloor

If Mr Michael Bloomberg, founder of the eponymous financial information empire, says the wellspring of his vast philanthropy was a special look he spotted in the eyes of the great givers, then Mr Bill Gates can justifiably turn his orbs on full beam.

Once the world's richest man, and perhaps the most famous name in technology, Mr Gates has just announced a significant acceleration of funding for the Gates Foundation as it marks its 25th anniversary.

From now till December 2045, when his foundation will shut down, it will spend US$200 billion (S$260 billion) - virtually all his wealth - to help prevent the deaths of mothers and babies, eradicate deadly infectious diseases and lift millions out of poverty.

By any yardstick, that is an enormous sum - and even more valuable these days because so many countries, including his own, are slashing aid budgets. The US Agency for International Development (USAid), for instance, is poised to cut funding to Africa's human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) programme, threatening to speed up death for hundreds of thousands of people on that continent. In Asia, Myanmar and Bangladesh will be particularly hard hit.

On May 6, when Straits Times editor Jaime Ho and I spent nearly an hour with the famed co-founder of Microsoft, Mr Gates was reflective yet forward-looking, and frequently humorous.

The initial plan for the foundation was that it would be wound up 20 years after his death. Why the acceleration of the timeline?

There are too many urgent problems to be solved for him to hold on to resources that could help other people, Mr Gates says, and technological advances are opening up so many possibilities.