Bill Gates at the U of Chicago

I managed to snag tickets to Bill Gates' talk at the Graduate School of Business yesterday through a nifty online lottery for students. Annoying seating corral-gals aside (what's with that - people in business school can't seat themselves?), the talk itself was pretty interesting. He spoke for about 30 minutes, primarily on the topics of rapid technological growth and how it will impact education, health care and the human machine interface, although he did touch on what what he termed at Davos "Creative Capitalism." A video of the talk can be had here (WMV, 76 MB)

Some of the highlights:

• He opened the talk by replaying his hilarious farewell video that originally aired at CES - celebrity appearances include Jay-Z, Steve Balmer, Bono, Clooney, Obama, and more. Even funnier in person.


• A brief discussion of the evolution of software and hardware industries - he posits an interesting theory that the spread of personal computers, cell phones, etc. works in a positive feedback loop with the growth of software companies - thoughts on this later


• The Future of Interaction - Natural User Interface. This was the part I found the most interesting. He discussed how the shift taking place already with the iPhone and Microsoft Surface will eventually transform how we interact with machines. The next iterations will involve touch, speech and visual recognition, and natural writing implements. Cool.


• Technology and Healthcare - another cool point, where he demonstrated Microsoft's HD View, being used in conjunction with Harvard to create ground-breaking brain imaging. He stressed the idea that technology should be accesible, so that it enables innovation in a variety of fields, rather than hinders it. He also stressed the applicability of Machine learning and AI to solving puzzles like the AIDS virus.


• During the question period, he also addressed a variety of applications of both technology and "Creative Capitalism," particularly in terms of improving inner-city education via charter schools and accountability testing, eradicating malaria and other diseases, and enabling biological research.

My Thoughts:
I think Gates is on to something when he talks about the ability of non-government, privately funded agencies to address certain market failures - particularly the collaboration of the Gates Foundation with GlaxoSmithKline to share the substantial financial risk involved in developing a malaria vaccine. I'm more skeptical, however, when he tries to replicate these successes, and this approach in general, in situations where the markets appear more efficient - for example, his ongoing project to raise African coffee farmer's wages. Improving productivity and efficiency is a good target, as they have done with a separate Indian farming program, but simply seeking to inflate wages a la Fair Trade Coffee isn't.