Bill Gates on India, Billion-Dollar Business Opportunities

Name: Bill Gates on India, Billion-Dollar Business Opportunities
Uploaded: 2025-09-27T13:45:54+00:00
Duration: 43 min 38 s
Channel: English Short Films

English Short Films

4 weeks ago

Timestamps

00:00 - Introduction
03:16 - Raj Shamani x Bill Gates begins
03:52 - Observations on India
06:40 - India: The Global Talent Capital
08:00 - Views on Inheritance
11:34 - People He’d Like to Meet Again
13:33 - Future Possibilities
16:18 - What People Misunderstand About Him
17:50 - Mistakes Made by Bill Gates
20:30 - Advice for Young People
21:42 - Problems That Money Cannot Fix
23:01 - Behaviors Everyone Should Adopt
24:32 - Perspectives on India
26:13 - Accuracy of Predictions
28:44 - Things He Fears
29:37 - Personal Fears
31:44 - Being a Maniac in His 20s
33:54 - What He Is Currently Learning
35:13 - What Young People Should Start Learning
37:20 - India’s Contribution to the Gates Foundation’s Strategies
39:19 - What People Should Think When They Hear “Bill Gates”
40:32 - Problems That Will Be Solved in the Next 5 Years
41:29 - Thanks for Listening
42:20 - Behind the Scenes
42:56 - Outro

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00:00What's the biggest misunderstanding about you?

00:03Whenever you hear about somebody who's got, you know, ridiculous amounts of money,

00:06their values are different than your values.

00:09You should be concerned about their agenda.

00:12What's your biggest fear?

00:13I'll be sad as my brain gets less capable.

00:17That disappoints me.

00:18Tell me one behavior we all should adopt.

00:20Reading a lot, being a student, that's a big part of my success.

00:24Richest and most powerful men in the world,

00:26Bill Gates has unleashed a technological revolution

00:29that has changed our lives.

00:32Bill Gates are 25 and Bill Gates are 70.

00:35Any change that you feel personally?

00:36In my 20s, being a maniac was the right thing.

00:39My competitors would say, oh no, you work too hard.

00:42And I'd say, yes, I do.

00:44If you're in a race, your 20s, when you have no wife and no children,

00:48that's the time to do it.

00:52If you get an opportunity to invite three Indians for dinner, who would that be?

00:57There was a mathematician, Ramanujan.

01:00I would have loved to have met him.

01:01Why do you think India is becoming a global talent capital for the world?

01:06We'd hire people from India and bring them to the United States.

01:09You know, both the United States and India were kind of mad at us

01:12because we were taking, you know, the smart people and moving them.

01:15In India, a lot of kids also fight with their parents on inheritance.

01:19Have your kids ever spoken to you?

01:20Before we start today's episode, all I want to say is thank you to each and every one of you.

01:34I'm really grateful that we were able to sit down with one of the most influential men in the world,

01:43the Bill Gates.

01:44I have been this young boy who always used to hear stories about this man,

01:50about the kind of money he has made, the kind of lives he's impacting,

01:54the kind of things he's building through Microsoft.

01:56From there, to be sitting in front of him, it was surreal.

02:01When I started the conversation, you could see it on my face that I was really nervous, really scared.

02:06I didn't know what to talk about, but as we went in the conversation,

02:10the podcaster in me took over and we spoke about his fears,

02:15his misunderstandings, the mission, and what is he doing today.

02:20Today, I want you to see this episode from a lens of a 20-year-old sitting with Bill Gates

02:27and figuring out what goes on in his brain.

02:30This episode is truly special because I could have never thought that Bill Gates

02:37will be on our podcast this soon in our journey.

02:41I always had a belief that we will be able to sit down with the smartest people around the world.

02:49But it'll happen this soon.

02:51I can't believe this right now.

02:54I just want you to enjoy this episode the way I did.

02:57I want you to sink in that this is happening because it's not sinking in with me.

03:03And I just want to tell you that there are more episodes coming.

03:07So keep supporting us and hit the subscribe button right now.

03:15Welcome on Figuring Out, sir.

03:17I'll tell you a little story.

03:19So during the pandemic, me and my sister, we were watching the Netflix documentary

03:24Inside Bill's Brain.

03:25And halfway through it, I told my sister that, hey, you know what?

03:30Like one day I'll sit with Bill Gates and I'll directly speak to him and get inside his brain.

03:37And she's randomly and she was laughing.

03:39So this one's for you.

03:42You did it.

03:43So it's an opportunity.

03:46I don't know how it just came out of my mouth and it's happening today.

03:50So thank you so much for doing this.

03:52Well, you've come to India quite often.

03:55Tell me something that you've observed about India, which a lot of people don't know about.

04:01Well, people probably, you know, because they're here all the time, you know, they probably don't recognize how much things have changed.

04:10And if you go away and come back, then you see, wow, you know, the level of entrepreneurship and the, you know, the amount of innovation that's actually taking place here.

04:23It's pretty fantastic.

04:25And, you know, for the foundation, we've been here originally because a lot of the health challenges were here and we still care a lot about that.

04:36But now a lot of our invention is being done here, whether it's, well, vaccines, obviously we have some incredible partnerships, but it's broadening to, you know, better seeds, better diagnostics, you know, the ways that we can use AI for health or education.

04:58So the innovation ecosystem has really exploded and that's going to be great for India and it's going to be great for the world.

05:08So when you meet other leaders around the world or when you meet your billionaire friends, what's the first thing you tell them about India?

05:15Is it the same thing that you just told me?

05:17Um, yeah, it's, uh, you know, we've had such a great experience, uh, in our work in India.

05:27Um, you know, I encourage people to come and tap into, uh, the great things, uh, going on.

05:35Is there anything specific you tell them?

05:38Well, you know, my connection with India goes all the way back to the Microsoft days when, you know, we at first would hire people from India

05:47and bring them to the United States and, you know, both the United States and India were kind of mad at us because we were taking, you know, the smart people and moving them.

05:56And, uh, you know, then they came back here to India and created the Microsoft India, uh, work, which is, you know, been absolutely fantastic.

06:06So, you know, up until the year 2000, I mainly knew the tech, uh, scene.

06:12And so, you know, a lot of Bangalore, Hyderabad, uh, seeing the country more broadly, you know, that's in my foundation work.

06:21So, you know, Bihar, UP, um, you know, scene, you know, where we could partner and, and help with things.

06:31Uh, you know, I still want to take more vacation here.

06:34I've done it a little bit, but, uh, you know, there's a lot of great places in India that I haven't been to.

06:39Talking about Microsoft and taking people from here to U.S., uh, people like Satri Dehla, Sundar Pichai, there have been incredible CEOs around the world.

06:52Why do you think India is becoming a global talent capital for the world?

06:57Do you think anything special here, which is out there?

07:00Well, you know, 20% of the world's people live here in India and India's had a particular emphasis on, you know, engineering software, you know, and turned out a lot of top people.

07:16And so when you get people like Sundar Satya, who are both great at engineering and management, you know, that's a, a magic, uh, combination.

07:28And, you know, so they, you know, these companies, you know, are looking anywhere in the world to find, uh, uh, that mix.

07:37And, you know, so India's getting about its fair share of those top leadership positions and, you know, it partly comes from having great universities, uh, you know, not just the IITs, but starting with them, uh, you know, that's using the incredible talent that's here.

07:58So talking about Indian talent, you do a lot of philanthropy work here and you've met a lot of talented people here, a lot of rich people here as well.

08:11Do you, and you believe that all the money that rich people have or like people who have made wealth for themselves, they should use it for charity work.

08:19They should pledge it in India.

08:21There's a, usually a lot of people believe that as parents is their duty to save everything for their kids.

08:28For the inheritance, right?

08:29Like the kids will get everything.

08:31What do you think is the right mindset using all the money for pledging and giving it back to the society or giving it to the children?

08:40Well, I think, you know, everybody gets to decide on that.

08:43You know, in my case, you know, my kids got, uh, a great upbringing education, but, you know, less than 1% of the, uh, the total wealth.

08:58Wealth, um, because I decided it wouldn't be a favor to them.

09:03You know, it's not a dynasty, you know, I'm not asking them to run Microsoft.

09:07I want to give them a chance to have their own earnings and success, you know, be significant and not overshadowed by the incredible luck and good fortune I had.

09:19And different families see that differently.

09:21I think the people who've made, uh, fortunes from technology are less dynastic.

09:28Uh, and, you know, so they, they'll even, you know, take their capital and give a lot of that away.

09:37You can have the view of giving away your capital or just giving away your earnings.

09:41Um, and, you know, of course I love all philanthropy, uh, but the tech sector is the, probably the most aggressive about, um, you know, giving most of it away.

09:54Not the other sectors you have not seen that in any other kind of industry where people try to give.

09:59Not, not to the same degree.

10:00It tends to be, uh, giving more, you know, of the, giving some portion of the profit as opposed to, uh, the, the actual base capital.

10:12You know, in India, a lot of kids also fight their, with their parents on inheritance.

10:18Have your kids ever spoken to you and be like, Hey, why are you not giving us everything or anything?

10:24Has it ever happened?

10:24Um, you know, you don't want your kids to ever be confused about your support for them and your love for them.

10:33And so I do think explaining early on your philosophy, uh, you know, that you're going to treat them all equally, uh, and that you're going to give them incredible opportunities.

10:45Uh, but that, you know, the highest calling, uh, for these resources is, uh, to go back, uh, to the neediest through the foundation.

10:57And, you know, they've seen the success of the foundation.

11:01I hope they're very proud of, of the foundation.

11:04And, um, uh, so, you know, I, I've seen cases where kids actually tell their parents to be more philanthropic.

11:14You know, I think the younger generation sometimes actually, uh, is pushing against this idea of, of, uh, uh, you know, the wealth just being passed down, uh, mostly.

11:28Um, you know, so that's, so, you know, every family's a bit different.

11:33I have last question on India, and then we'll get to the foundation work and try to understand you as well.

11:40If you get an opportunity to invite three Indians for dinner, dead or alive, who would that be?

11:49Well, I get to spend time with, you know, some incredible, uh, people in India.

11:56And, you know, I get time with the prime minister and understand his vision, uh, and how we fit into that.

12:04This, you know, 2047, uh, uh, thing that, you know, everything is lining up to try to achieve that.

12:11And, you know, I get to meet, uh, there was a, a great scientist, Raj Ban, who created the, uh, Department of Biotechnology.

12:20Uh, there was a mathematician, Ramanujan, uh, who I, I would have loved to have met him because he was, uh, uh, you know, almost mysterious how he was so genius at what he was able to do.

12:35Um, you know, the, I got to work with Rotten Tata.

12:40I'm getting to work with all of the, uh, amazing philanthropists and, uh, a lot of the innovators here.

12:48You know, I get to see small companies early on.

12:51I just went through, uh, some of these, uh, companies using AI in health.

12:56Uh, some prop for profit, a few, uh, nonprofit.

13:01Um, you know, we had a great 25th, uh, uh, uh, 25 year celebration and this great, uh, sitar artist, you know, came and, uh, that was a pretty special thing.

13:15Uh, so it'd be hard for me to pick.

13:17There's, there's, uh, so many incredible talents.

13:21You can't pick three.

13:23I, I, I think I defend, uh, some people by not including them.

13:30Uh, you were talking about small companies.

13:34If you were to start something from zero in India today, where would you put most of your time and what's the first step you'll take?

13:45Well, you'd mostly start a company because you think you enjoy working on something and you think you have a world-class understanding of, you know, a unique contribution.

13:54You know, for me, that was software for this day and age, you know, if you think you understand, you know, fusion, uh, you know, that's great.

14:04If you're successful, which, uh, that's risky, um, you know, you could really improve the world.

14:10You know, AI is sort of the today's equivalent of what I did when I was young to see, you know, wow, the possibilities are unlimited.

14:24And so, you know, I'd probably be doing, uh, one of these new AI companies if I was starting out today.

14:32Is it, do you still feel there's opportunity, a lot of opportunities in AI to build something as significant as what you have built or it's pretty late?

14:41Well, you know, the big companies are, uh, putting a lot of money into it.

14:47Um, and the number of companies globally is, is, uh, you know, huge.

14:54I mean, you know, many people didn't even know these Chinese companies were doing all this work and yet, you know, some of the best results over the last six months have come from three or four of the models there.

15:05So it's not, when I got going in computing, it was a very small set of people.

15:11And, you know, people thought we were crazy that there, we set a computer on every desk and a computer in every home.

15:19And that just seemed strange to people because they couldn't see the, they didn't get software and they didn't get the, uh, exponential improvement of the chips was making computing, you know, basically free.

15:33So it's, I'd say it's tougher, um, to get out in front, uh, there will be new companies.

15:43I mean, NVIDIA, you know, is almost as valuable as, uh, Apple and Microsoft.

15:50And yet, uh, you know, they, they, you know, came into prominence only really in the last five or six years, although they're about 15 years old.

16:00So there are opportunities and there will be some new companies that use AI, uh, to achieve unbelievable success, but it'll be, you know, two or three out of 10,000.

16:12And, you know, would I be able to do that again?

16:15Hard to say.

16:17You talked about like when you started, a lot of people thought that, oh, what are you doing?

16:23This is some random thing these guys are trying to do.

16:26They may be stupid.

16:27They may be thinking too big, whatever.

16:28Right.

16:29And over the time, every time you do something big, usually people do not understand you or anyone, like not just you, like whoever wants to start something new and big.

16:41In today's world, or as of today, what's the biggest misunderstanding about you?

16:47What do you think?

16:49What do people misunderstand about Bill Gates?

16:51Well, whenever you hear about somebody who's got, you know, some degree of power or, you know, ridiculous amounts of money, you know, might, you might think they have grand schemes, uh, you know, and they're, uh, you know, there's almost a sense that, you know, their, their values are different than your values.

17:14And, you know, that you should be concerned about their agenda, um, you know, hopefully for the people who actually do know me, um, you know, and how much I love, uh, the foundation work and, you know, how I work with my friends or my kids.

17:30Uh, you know, it's, uh, you know, it's very different from the people who just think, oh, wow, you know, he's one of these guys who's, you know, pushing levers and, uh, has, has too much money and, and too much, uh, authority.

17:44So that people misunderstand about you and talk about misunderstanding.

17:51Do you, have you made any major mistake that people don't know about?

17:55Well, some of my mistakes are very public.

17:58I mean, Microsoft, uh, you know, we had lots of products that didn't work, you know, we did a phone operating system and now, uh, you know, Android, you know, took that position.

18:09So I certainly, you know, messed that up, uh, uh, uh, in a, in a huge way, uh, for the foundation, you know, we often have multiple plans.

18:21You know, we, we wanted to have an HIV vaccine.

18:24Uh, we don't have that yet.

18:26You know, we're working on a very cheap toilet, but it's still too expensive.

18:32Uh, so that's taking a lot longer.

18:33We don't have polio eradication done.

18:36I'm still, uh, very committed to that, but it's, it's taking a lot longer, uh, than, than we thought it would.

18:43So do you, talking about foundation work, you've impacted millions of life and you spend a lot in making people's life better.

18:54What's your biggest challenge today?

18:56Because somebody on, somebody who's watching this might think that at your level with so much, uh, power, influence, money, you can actually fix a lot of problems.

19:09What do you think is your problem?

19:11Like what challenges do you see here?

19:13Well, I love the scientific challenges.

19:17I mean, we still don't fully understand malnutrition.

19:21Uh, we have some tools to reduce it, that it's super exciting.

19:26Uh, but, you know, I'm really pushing our research workers, uh, hard that, okay, you know, we need, we need to know more about that.

19:38You know, I do think getting money to help the very poorest countries, a lot of which are in Africa.

19:43You know, Asia, you know, uh, many of the countries are having good economic growth and, and Africa has a lot of unique, uh, governments or instability or disease challenges.

20:00And so telling people they should, you know, help out, uh, other humans, even though they're, they're far away and speak a different language, that's not as easy as I thought it would be.

20:14Uh, you know, right now, some of the rich countries, including my country are cutting their aid budgets and I'm, I'm very disappointed.

20:22Uh, you know, to me, that's not, you know, the golden rule of treating people like you'd like to be treated.

20:29So what do you think all the people who are watching this, including me, uh, young people should do so that we could convince more people to help other people?

20:39Well, when you're young, uh, if you're here in India, you know, you can probably travel, you know, some modest distance, an hour or two and see people, you know, who don't have the same opportunities you do that, you know, they're smart, but their school's not good.

20:56Or, you know, they get, uh, some health problem and they're not able to access things.

21:02I would say in India, you know, programs like the aspirational district program, India does, uh, talk openly about the places that are the worst off.

21:14And that's, you know, that's pretty impressive, uh, you know, even issues like sanitation that governments, most governments, you know, you wouldn't catch them talking about toilets.

21:24Uh, you know, this country, you know, took on a pretty aggressive plan and made a lot of progress on that.

21:33So you can go out and see, uh, people and develop empathy, uh, without going too far.

21:42And you've spent hours and hours and days in this country.

21:48You've spent millions on vaccines and trying to take care of healthcare challenges.

21:55What's one problem you feel that money cannot fix?

21:59You know, there's a lot of talk about, uh, obesity and, uh, you know, when I saw the prime minister, he was talking about various yoga type things that, you know, people would adopt those, but it's been hard.

22:17You know, not many countries have gotten the behavior change.

22:21You know, maybe India can pioneer some approaches there, but, you know, frankly, and I'll sound like a technologist, the most promising thing is actually, uh, uh, you know, a drug, a class of drugs called these GLP one drugs that, you know, are going to go off patent and become cheap.

22:41And, you know, so I always like, uh, you know, I'm a little over-focused on a, uh, scientific solution.

22:47So maybe a combination of that behavior change and, and the new tools, but behavior change is hard.

22:53Um, we, we haven't, uh, succeeded in that as, as much as we'd like to.

23:00Tell me one behavior we all should adopt.

23:02Well, you know, the behavior that's helped me is, is basically being a student all the time, wanting to learn things and being pretty brutal with myself of, do I really understand, you know, what's going on?

23:18You know, do I understand some AI thing or, uh, some disease thing?

23:24And, you know, fortunately, uh, I can meet with people who in many cases can help me understand and then, you know, knowledge, if you're careful about building your, your knowledge, it all kind of connects together.

23:38But, uh, you know, reading a lot, being a student, you know, having people who can teach me, uh, uh, that's, you know, been not only fun for me, but also a big part of my success.

23:53So all of the people who are watching this actually feels pretty validated at this point, because this whole podcast is about learning from really, really incredible people like you.

24:07And we have so many questions that we just keep asking to learn more, to learn more, to get inside brain.

24:14So thanks for validation.

24:16Perfect.

24:17What's fascinating for me this time in your journey, like this time your visit to India, the Full Gates Foundation board is here, right?

24:26And that's pretty unique and they get to experience India.

24:31What, what do you think, what are your priorities with regards to this nation?

24:36Why the whole board is here?

24:38What do you guys are trying to figure out?

24:41What are the things that you're doing?

24:42Well, as much progress as we've been part of achieving here in India, there's still a lot to do.

24:51You know, the, the child to death rate is about a third of what it was.

24:57But it's still almost three times higher than in a rich country.

25:02So we, you know, we should all want to close that gap.

25:06That's equity.

25:08Uh, I mentioned malnutrition, uh, you know, the country is very serious about that.

25:14And yet, um, you know, it means that your brain never develops.

25:19And sadly, if whatever dietary or disease things affect you, uh, during pregnancy in your first year,

25:29even if later you get a fantastic diet, your brain and your physical, uh, capabilities, they don't adjust.

25:40You're, you know, sort of permanently affected.

25:42And so, um, you know, we're working with some great scientists here.

25:47We have a lot of the tools of biology have gotten a lot better.

25:49So I do think, um, you know, in the next decade, we'll totally get to the bottom of that.

25:56Uh, and, you know, I'm, I'm thrilled to do that.

26:00And a lot of the scientists we partner with, you know, including some of ICMR, but, you know, lots of institutions around the country, uh, they're also, uh, committed to that.

26:12Yeah. So you work here a lot and with the foundation, you work around the world, a lot of things.

26:18And because of all of this passion and data and this intention to try to help people, you've been pretty accurate in trying to understand trends way before people, like normal people.

26:34Let's say you were pretty accurate in so many things in predicting so many epidemics as well.

26:40Is there something that you know, which we don't like, how do you spot these things way faster?

26:48Well, the biggest change agent in my lifetime has been the miracle of digital, you know, now, uh, moving into the AI phase of, of that digital revolution.

27:01So the fact that as a young person, you know, I was programming at age 13 and by, you know, 18, I had my, you know, thousands of hours of, uh, really strong feedback about, you know, getting better and, uh, being pushed.

27:19Uh, and so to, it's a really lucky thing to have such a familiarity with the thing that's going to change the world.

27:32And so, you know, the, I wrote a book called the road ahead a long time ago, you know, that talked about, uh, you know, the internet and digital money and, uh, video conferencing.

27:44And then when I moved into the foundation work, the health work, you know, people in that community understand pandemics and, you know, so my saying, Hey, you know, there's a big risk.

27:56And the thing that's going to kill, you know, 10 million additional people is likely to be a pandemic, uh, you know, that's commonplace knowledge.

28:06If you're in the global health community, it's a very small community.

28:09Uh, but I was just somebody who was listened to, uh, uh, stating, uh, this and sadly, you know, most of the people who listened to that prediction, uh, listened to it after it came true.

28:24Then, you know, what my goal was, was people to hear that and actually, uh, stop it from happening.

28:32That's usually the case, right?

28:33Like people listen to pieces, golden advice pieces and pieces of nuggets way after the time has been passed, right?

28:42Because of this, do you fear anything today?

28:46I definitely hope that we shape AI in a positive way.

28:52It's such a big, uh, impact on, you know, being smarter than humans, uh, that it will change our world a lot.

29:04Um, and it's, you know, it's, it's definitely new territory.

29:08So I have a list of about five things, you know, AI shaping AI properly is at the top of that list, but, you know, avoiding the next pandemic, avoiding nuclear war, uh, bioterrorism, climate change.

29:22It's only about five or six things that we need to, um, minimize the chance of, um, you know, and use our additional wealth and insights, you know, against those things.

29:37Do you have any personal fear?

29:38What's your biggest fear?

29:39You know, it's not like I'm afraid of heights or planes or fire or anything like that.

29:44You know, I hope I'm, I'll be sad as my brain, uh, gets less capable, you know, which, you know, I'm, as I turned 70 this year, you know, I'd be lucky to have 20 years of, you know, being able to learn, uh, you know, maybe I'll get lucky and get a little bit more.

30:04But, you know, that disappoints me because I've had such a amazing time learning, uh, things.

30:13And I, I used to think of old people as not, you know, contributing all that much.

30:18And now I've had to change my mind about how important old people are.

30:24Do you, do you feel difference?

30:26I don't, I don't at all.

30:28Uh, you know, probably if I, I took an IQ test, I, I would do a little bit worse than when I was 25.

30:36Uh, but, you know, I've accumulated enough knowledge, you know, so wisdom, uh, you know, can compensate a little bit for a slight, uh, reduction intelligence.

30:46And I do think it's like a muscle that if you're pushing yourself to think and learn that, you know, you stay, uh, it really helps your capabilities a lot.

30:59Um, but yeah, I have a fear that, you know, uh, eventually I'll lose, you know, I won't want to pick up a 500 page book.

31:08I'll look at it and go, are you kidding?

31:09Uh, I'm done with that.

31:11So with age, you have not felt any changes in your brain?

31:16Not really.

31:17In terms of slowing?

31:20Wow.

31:20No, I don't think so.

31:22Um, you know, whenever you can't remember something, you're like, oh no now, but, uh, you know, so maybe a tiny bit of that, but then, you know, it's just a little bit because you're, you're looking for it.

31:37You know, when I was in my twenties, if I can't remember something, I was like, so what, uh, uh, is there any change you feel?

31:45Because so Bill Gates are 25 and Bill Gates are 70.

31:50Is there any change that you feel personally?

31:52Well, in my twenties, I was, I chose to focus on one topic from, you know, age 20 to about 31 or two.

32:02Um, I told myself, Hey, I love biology and math and all these things, but I want to be the person who's advancing software faster than anyone else.

32:17And so I really did narrow my focus and I, I didn't, you know, take much time off and I could stay in the office, you know, 72 hours and then crash.

32:30Um, and so my adrenaline and was really unique.

32:38Now my understanding of how to manage people, uh, other than myself, wasn't that, that could, you know, I, I, I look back and, you know, I, I've learned a lot since then, but just my stamina, uh, and focus for that period of my life, you know, being kind of a maniac, uh, was,

33:00was, was the right thing.

33:02And, you know, I, I, you know, my competitors would say, Oh no, you work too hard.

33:06And I'd say, yes, I do.

33:09Do you think that's a great advice for every young person who's watching?

33:12Well, it's not, it's not for everyone.

33:16Um, but if you're, if you're in a race, uh, and, you know, the, a little bit moving a little bit faster can make a difference, uh, then yes, your, your twenties, when you have no wife and no children, uh, that's the time to do it.

33:39Uh, that's the time to be a little maniac about certain things, right?

33:44You also just mentioned that you love learning, which obviously the world knows, but during this conversation also, you just talked about it like a little bit again, again, what are you currently learning or what do you want to learn now?

33:56Well, there's a lot going on, uh, you know, AI just staying on top of that is, you know, I, I very much enjoy that.

34:09And I get to sit and talk with the top people at open AI and I get to play around with things.

34:15But then when you think, okay, now about what about AI applied to mental health care, uh, and isn't that one of the most exciting things because, you know, we can never have enough therapists, uh, and even people who aren't, uh, you know, suffering massively, you know, maybe we could help, uh, even people with mild, uh, symptoms.

34:42So, you know, what does this AI companion look like and, you know, how can that help us?

34:51Uh, my friend, Reed Hoffman, uh, just wrote a book called super agency that he's got a really good chapter about this.

34:58So I'm pushing myself to try and understand, uh, you know, what can we do there and meet the people who are, you know, pushing the boundaries, uh, because I see such potential.

35:13So what would you advise young people to start learning today and from where AI itself?

35:20Well, if you have a mathematical mind, you know, not everyone should learn AI, uh, you know, these tools are going to be available, uh, to everyone.

35:31And so you ought to be a user of AI, but the underlying stuff, you know, that's a pretty narrow set of people who will have an opportunity to, uh, you know, push on a new training method.

35:45Um, and even people who grew up with software, some of them don't really get this because it's, it's a bit more mathematical than it is just a, a programming type thing.

35:57Um, so it's as a user that, okay, if you're, you like doing creative work, yes, AI is going to change your world and AI hopefully can help you, uh, do things faster and better.

36:13So my prescription would be yes, to use it for the areas that you're excited about.

36:20Any area that you're excited about, learn from, learn about that and try to make a bridge between AI and that industry.

36:27Right. I mean, the internet has so much educational material on it.

36:33So between all that material, uh, and then an AI that can help, you know, take long documents and you can have a dialogue with it, uh, you know, you can do it in text or you can, you know, now do these generate podcasts about things.

36:49It's, uh, it's a great time to be a learner, right?

36:52You know, when I was young, I had to go to the library and, you know, read the encyclopedia alphabetically, uh, no multimedia.

37:00Yeah.

37:01Uh, this is, uh, a paradise.

37:04Yeah. Thanks to you guys.

37:06Because the digital world, you made it easy for us.

37:10We don't know the world, what it looked like to go to a library and read about something.

37:15We get fidgety if we don't get an answer in three seconds.

37:20Oh yeah.

37:20I have last two questions for you.

37:22One is in your philanthropy work with the foundation, how is India contributing to your global strategies?

37:30Well, more and more of the innovation, um, is being done in India.

37:37Uh, India's, you know, got a depth of talent and a desire for frugal solutions.

37:44And so even though the rich world, US, Europe, you know, we have a lot of talent and for some basic science thing like immunology, a lot of the new insights will keep coming, uh, from those institutions.

37:58But when it comes to actually putting the pieces together, including something like AI for healthcare, you know, I was just meeting with a number of companies working on, on very piece, various pieces of that in India.

38:10Uh, and so the, you know, we need better seeds and we need better weather advice for farmers.

38:18Uh, and so, although we're going to continue to do a lot of implementation here in India, help, you know, get things rolled out, uh, more and more of our sort of product research, uh, work will be done here.

38:32Okay.

38:33Uh, both because, um, it benefits India, but, you know, we're also very good if, if it's saving Indian children really working.

38:42Well, you know, our foundation has a lot of presence in Africa.

38:49So even take, you know, the classic example where India was totally the leader on this digital public infrastructure, the, the digital money and identity adhar thing, uh, you know, funding the Africans to come here and learn and, uh, for their budgets and create, helping to create the open source software that makes it easy for them.

39:09You know, that's now a huge agenda item, which is kind of a South South thing with a little bit of facilitation from us.

39:17Got it.

39:18And here's the last question.

39:20Oh, if you had, if the world had to write one sentence next to the name Bill Gates, what would you want them to write?

39:31You know, I don't do my work, you know, based on some epitaph, uh, you know, ideally, you know,

39:38they'd say that, wow, there were these diseases around, you know, polio and malaria and, uh, malnutrition.

39:46And, you know, now we don't have to think about that, you know, partly because, uh, he championed, you know, putting more, uh, great thinking and resources into ending those problems.

40:02And so, you know, I hope people look at the word polio and go, what was that?

40:08Uh, you know, when you read Dickens novels and they talk about somebody had consumption, it's like, what is that?

40:13Well, that's actually TB.

40:15So we still, not in the UK, we don't have much, but, uh, we, we, we still do.

40:20They just, uh, changed the word.

40:23So, you know, hopefully, uh, some problems that, that we can actually finish, uh, and, and then move on.

40:31Which problem do you think we'll be finishing first?

40:34Well, polio, uh, you know, I, I expect even in five years, uh, and that'll give us, uh, the credibility to go after things like malaria and measles.

40:46That's amazing.

40:47Oh, it is.

40:47It's going to be fun.

40:49Uh, it's, it's amazing.

40:50If in five years we can make that a reality, it's going to be incredible for the humankind.

40:57It's wow.

40:58Yeah.

40:58It's only happened only once.

41:00Smallpox was eliminated back in 1980.

41:02So, you know, polio, uh, serious disease, it's going to be the second.

41:07Wow.

41:07I really, truly wish that it happens faster than what we've just talked about.

41:14And I hope like more than by the time the foundation gets in full-fledgedly in the work, I, I believe instead of not two, three, there could be multiple of them so that you, you lost counting.

41:26That should be the goal.

41:27And I'm expecting for it.

41:28Well, thank you so much for doing this, sir.

41:31It was a pleasure having you when I was a kid, I was growing up in school, just you were the richest person in the world before I gave it away.

41:44So your name would pop up.

41:46So just to talk about you and how you made your money was a proud feeling in school.

41:51And in friend circle, everybody would respect you that, oh, you know so much about this person and that from there, that kid sitting right in front of you.

42:00And trying to, you know, being in a situation where I'm sitting with you and figuring out what's going on in your brain.

42:07It's an incredible opportunity.

42:09I'm so grateful.

42:10Thank you so much for doing this.

42:12It's a dream come true.

42:13Great.

42:13We'll have to do it again.

42:15Yes, we need to.

42:16I've got you on camera now.

42:20Pleasure.

42:20I'm definitely a little nervous because it's a big, big, big vodka.

42:23It's a big vodka, but it's time.