Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates appeared on the NBC Nightly News Wednesday speaking with Tom Brokaw about the current economic crisis. Gates wasn't concerned about the state of the U.S. economy in the long run. Historical data would support his longer-term view, but that won't make the current disarray and uncertainty about the economy any less scary for investors riding the daily, nausea-inducing roller coaster.
Brokaw observed that Gates seemed to be cool, or not terribly worried, about the U.S. financial crisis. "The U.S. economy in the long run is going to do very, very well. There are some interesting and meaningful decisions to be made in the next weeks," Gates said. He didn't get into the details about those decisions facing Congress, but legislators and the business community are likely seeking his advice. His good friend Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway is investing around $5 billion in Goldman Sachs, providing a confidence boost to the market.
As for continued technology innovation in light of the economic upheaval, Gates said, "In terms of inventing new medicines or improving software, or new ways of doing things, the level of investment will stay very high." That said, conservation of capital will be in the minds of VCs and start-ups until the economy rights itself.
Earlier in the day, Gates told Bloomberg that problems with the U.S. economy would likely reduce government support for combating the world's problems, such as poverty and disease. "There are the rich-world economies and the developing-world economies and, while the degree to which they are linked is not well understood, when one suffers it can't be good for the other. Rich-world budgets may not have room for increased generosity.''
HONG KONG--As software gets more powerful, privacy issues pose an "interesting software challenge," says Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.
Recounting a short history of software development, Gates said innovations in natural interaction technology are making technology more pervasive. "When interaction gets more natural, computers can be everywhere to listen to you," he said, adding that "society will have to have more explicit rules" governing privacy boundaries around software as technology develops.
Gates was speaking here to mark the 10th anniversary of Microsoft Research Asia, one of the software giant's research arms.
Explaining the company's focus on software research and development, he said its $7 billion investment in that direction is necessary to push innovation in a market that is "increasingly software driven."
"Even in a field like astronomy, it's not just looking through an eyepiece but testing theories, and software lets you do that," he said.
Noting that software is extending beyond PCs, Gates said mobile software is a market that is growing rapidly in importance. He added: "Mobile phones are increasingly becoming software-driven platforms, although they were just for voice before."
But it is a hardware innovation that will make mobiles more accessible for high-end functions. Amid developments in phone processors and mobile applications, it is screen technology that holds the key to bridging the divide between mobile devices and PCs, Gates noted.
"As we get screens that can roll or fold out to be bigger, or mobile devices that have small screens but can project larger images on walls, that line between what's a PC and a mobile will keep getting grayer," Gates said.
Another device that is expected to overlap with PC capabilities is the TV, he noted.
"Software innovation will be pervasive; it will happen to other things in our lives, like our cars and our TVs," he said.
Microsoft is working to place its R&D efforts in speech recognition technology to make TV watching more interactive, according to Gates.
In a demonstration shortly after his address, a Microsoft executive showcased a TV that was pulling a video clip from the Internet. He performed a search through the video content by way of speech recognition. This provides more comprehensive search results beyond current methods of running a text query through a video's title and summary,
Beyond these developments, more important for the developing world is in putting computers within reach, he added.
"Digital access is almost becoming like literacy...Children in poor countries need to get it too," Gates said.
Victoria Ho of ZDNet Asia reported from Hong Kong.
Update 10:33 a.m. PST: It appears the planned announcement was in fact made around the time this item was first posted.
Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg are expected to announce Wednesday morning a $500 million donation to fight tobacco use in developing countries, according to a CNBC report.
Gates is expected to announce his contribution of $125 million over the next five years toward the project, which will address tobacco-related problems in such countries as China, India and Africa.
Global health is one of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's focus areas.
Gates and Bloomberg are reportedly making their announcement in TheTimesCenter in New York.
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