Bill Gates held his 11th Reddit “Ask Me Anything” on January 11, 2023. He discussed generative AI, climate change, TerraPower’s planned Wyoming reactor, Microsoft, global health, farmland, taxes and entertainment. His answers are a snapshot of his views at that time—not a report on his latest positions or the current status of the projects he mentioned.
What happened in Gates’s 11th Reddit AMA?
Gates opened the session by saying he had recently learned he would become a grandfather and invited questions about his foundation work, climate innovation and the year ahead. The discussion lasted more than an hour. The original Reddit thread preserves the questions and answers; Gates also posted a recap on Gates Notes.
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Across the answers, he struck a cautiously optimistic note: he described AI as a major technological shift, argued that climate solutions need to compete with polluting alternatives on cost, and said that missing the 1.5°C climate goal did not mean a disastrous outcome was inevitable. Those are his assessments and arguments, not findings established by the AMA itself.
What did Gates say about generative AI?
ChatGPT as a preview
Gates said he was impressed by how quickly generative AI was improving and called ChatGPT a glimpse of what was coming. He expected AI to have a large impact and considered it a more consequential shift than Web3 or the metaverse. He was following Microsoft’s AI work closely, but described possible applications rather than announcing products or reporting proven results.
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Tutoring and medical assistance
He pointed to AI tutors that could help children learn mathematics and remain engaged, and to systems that could assist people in places where doctors are scarce. These were potential uses he saw as relevant to philanthropy. His answer did not establish that such tools were broadly deployed, clinically validated, or a substitute for teachers and health professionals. Accuracy, bias, privacy, access and accountability remain important questions for any such use.
Gates had also set out his broader optimism about AI in his essay “The Age of AI Has Begun.” That context helps explain his enthusiasm, but the AMA itself was a personal Q&A, not a technical evaluation of AI systems.
How did he frame climate change and the 1.5°C goal?
Overshoot, without fatalism
Gates said the world would probably miss its timelines and overshoot the 1.5°C goal. That was his January 2023 assessment, not a scientific conclusion independently established in the Reddit session. He also said climate change could slow improvements in living conditions, especially in poorer countries, while maintaining that a terrible outcome could still be avoided.
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Make cleaner choices competitive
His central economic argument was that clean alternatives need to become affordable compared with polluting ones. He named aviation, concrete, meat and transport as sectors where cost and available technology matter. This is an innovation-focused framework, not a complete climate policy or a claim that any single technology can solve the problem. His wider discussion of the energy transition appears in Gates Notes’ account of the state of the energy transition.
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What did Gates say about TerraPower’s Wyoming reactor?
Gates described TerraPower as having two reactor designs using liquid sodium as coolant and uranium as fuel. That corrects the premise of a question that referred to molten-salt thorium reactors: his answer did not describe TerraPower’s designs that way.
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He said the first reactor was being built in Wyoming and that he expected it to be operating by 2030. He attributed a delay in obtaining uranium fuel to the war in Ukraine, and characterized the project as low-cost and very safe. The operating date was the expectation he gave in January 2023, not a guarantee; the cost and safety descriptions were his claims, not independently demonstrated outcomes in the AMA. For additional background, see Gates’s discussion of TerraPower and advanced nuclear energy.
What did he say about Microsoft?
His role and relationship with the company
Gates said Microsoft involved him in some research and product planning, and that he enjoyed working with CEO Satya Nadella and Microsoft teams. He also said he was not up to date on the company’s hardware roadmap. His continued involvement in some discussions should not be confused with running Microsoft or having direct authority over its product decisions.
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Regrets and personal technology
Looking back, Gates said he would have handled Microsoft’s phone operating-system efforts differently, given Android’s eventual success, and would have settled the antitrust lawsuit sooner. He recalled that the last time code he wrote shipped in a Microsoft product was in 1985.
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As a personal snapshot from the AMA, he said he used a Samsung Galaxy Fold 4, a Windows machine, a Surface Studio desktop and Surface Hub hardware. Those were the devices he mentioned in January 2023, not current recommendations or a statement about Microsoft’s present hardware plans.
What did he say about healthcare and vaccines?
Gates said his interest in healthcare grew from recognizing that children were dying of preventable causes that could be addressed at relatively low cost. He named malaria as a major priority, saying progress had been made but that the disease remained a serious problem.
In response to a claim about the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, he denied that the Gates Foundation had been involved in preventing the vaccine from being open-source. He said the Foundation was not involved in Oxford’s licensing agreement with AstraZeneca, and cited the Serum Institute of India as a manufacturer that had produced more than 2 billion vaccine doses with Foundation support. These are Gates’s explanations in the AMA; they do not independently resolve broader questions about licensing, intellectual property, pricing or access.
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Asked about farmland, Gates said his holdings amounted to less than 1/4,000 of U.S. farmland, and that a professional investment team made the purchases. He said the investments were intended to improve productivity and create jobs, rejected the idea of a broader “grand scheme,” and said farmland represented less than 4% of his total holdings or assets in the context of his answer. These are figures and explanations he gave in 2023, not a current ownership calculation; the AMA discussion used different percentage formulations, so they should not be treated as a definitive acreage accounting.
What was his position on billionaires and taxes?
Gates said wealth can leave people disconnected from ordinary life and supported higher taxes on wealthy people. He suggested aligning capital-gains tax rates with ordinary-income tax rates, but did not support banning billionaires as a category. He said incentives to create companies mattered, acknowledged his own good fortune and expected his assets eventually to go toward the Foundation or other philanthropic purposes. These were his personal political and economic views, not statements on behalf of Microsoft or necessarily the Gates Foundation.
What else did Gates mention?
Books, shows and movies
Gates said he liked season two of HBO’s The White Lotus, which was the season current when the AMA took place—not a newly released season today. He congratulated Jennifer Coolidge on her Golden Globe and also mentioned a Bernie Madoff documentary or special, Tehran, Avatar: The Way of Water and a Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle event. For readers following the entertainment references, GeekWire’s contemporary recap also covered the exchange.
Grandfatherhood and the sign-off
He said he was reading The Song of the Cell by Siddhartha Mukherjee, was interested in the Victorian era and periods of scientific innovation, and thought this was the best time in which to be alive. He also said he still enjoyed coding and experimenting with technology. The session ended when he ran out of Diet Coke.
What the AMA does—and does not—tell readers
The Reddit session is a useful record of what Gates chose to say on January 11, 2023. It captures his opinions, recollections, explanations and expectations; it is not a scientific study, corporate filing, independent investigation or current status report. In particular, his AI forecasts, climate assessment, TerraPower schedule and account of disputed policy questions should remain attributed to him.
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