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Technology
Ananya Gairola

Microsoft Founder Bill Gates Challenged ChatGPT To Pass The AP Biology: It Blew The Question Away

An Internet user checks ChatGPT on his mobile phone, Suqian, Jiangsu province, China, April 26, 2023. Microsoft invested in OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, as Bill Gates has endorsed the technology. FUTURE PUBLISHING/BENZINGA

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates recounted an interesting anecdote about his challenge to the OpenAI Microsoft team to notify him when their language model, ChatGPT, could pass the AP Biology exam. 

During an event in San Diego, Gates had a fireside chat with Jessie Woolley-Wilson, CEO of DreamBox Learning. The iconic duo talked about various topics, including artificial intelligence or AI.  

Co-founder of Microsoft Bill Gates speaks during an event to mark the 20th anniversary of PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) at the United States Institute of Peace on February 24, 2023, in Washington, DC. Gates vision of AI was Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI as ChatGPT has been the talk of the new technology. ALEX WONG/BENZINGA

During the interview, Gates said that despite AI’s remarkable achievements in speech and image recognition, its ability to read and write had been lacking — until recently. 

Gates revealed a challenge he gave a challenge to Microsoft-backed OpenAI last summer. “Hey, when you can pass the AP Biology exam, bother me, but in the meantime, I’m going to work on malaria and TB and HIV because I’m not sure.” 

To his surprise, a few months later, the team returned and showed ChatGPT, “blowing the questions away.” He said there were a few questions the AI-powered chatbot didn’t get right that had abstract reasoning, including mathematics. 

Gates was the first person outside OpenAI to see GPT-4. He hosted a dinner last August with OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman, co-founder Greg Brockman and others. 

Gates has previously discussed the transformative possibilities of AI and its susceptibility to errors, having previously described ChatGPT as being on par with the internet regarding its significance as a technological innovation.

While Gates continued praising ChatGPT, Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and is reportedly working on a ChatGPT rival, TruthGPT — has been fairly vocal about sharing his concerns about rapid AI developments. Musk previously insulted Gates’ proficiency in AI too. 

Open AI was previously featured in ABC News regarding the use of ChatGPT and the possible outcomes of the future. Some had feared that it would put humans out of jobs with the use of AI technology. 

Musk had called for the regulation of AI to keep the system in check on consistent basis. Others have expressed concern about the use of ChatGPT due to the enhancement of knowledge. 

“I knew I had just seen the most important advance in technology since the graphical user interface,” said Gates about ChatGPT. “AI can help with everything from time-saving paperwork tasks to conducting research on life-saving drugs to how we educate our children.”

Gates had predicted that ChatGPT will replace teachers as the technology is expected to be valuable for education.

“If you just took the next 18 months, the AIs will come in as a teacher’s aide and give feedback on writing. And then they will amp up what we’re able to do in math. Our bottleneck in math really is more of how we fit in the overall system and getting that teacher adoption,” Gate said about AI facilitating children.

 

Produced in association with Benzinga

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