“It’s been five years since I was last here [at the Microsoft Research Faculty Summit] so it’s great to see the way this event has grown.”
So began Microsoft chairman, founder and veteran software architect, Bill Gates, at a unique keynote appearance this week.
“The original vision of Microsoft, the dream about what software could do if we had infinite computing and infinite storage, that almost is our reality today. So it’s amazing for me to see how that’s being applied. Whether it’s user interface with vision, speech or pen, with modeling in rich data areas with machine learning, the idea of the powerful assistant that can help us get things done and drive deep insights, the progress we’ll make in the next five to ten years will be really unbelievable.”
So what dos Chairman Bill appreciate most about this gilded age?
“Our friends in the hardware industry are giving us better screens and better sensors, things that let us exercise the magic of software.”
“Thank God for commercial software,” Gates said, during the talk. “It actually funds salaries, gives people jobs, terrible stuff like that. And thank God for free software! Free software lets people gets things out there that you can play around and build on. But the two work very well in a nice common ecosystem.”
The talk by Gates spanned a wide range of topics, including robotics, education, and the future of computing.
What of the evolution of artificial intelligence, and the use of technology as a personal assistant? Bill reminisced about Microsoft Bob. “He will re-emerge,” said Gates to audience laughter perhaps with a bit more sophistication. “We were just ahead of our time — like most of our mistakes,” Gates lamented.
Watch this week’s Gates video at the 2013 Faculty Summit on You Tube. [24×7]
