Bill Gates interviewed Modi: In an interview to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Prime Minister Modi said that I want to provide the best education to children. I want to fill the gap in teachers with technology. I am also bringing a big change in the agriculture sector and want to change the mindset of people.
Prime Minister Modi discussed with Bill Gates a number of issues including Artificial Intelligence (AI), digital revolution, healthcare, education, agriculture, women power, climate change and governance.
At the beginning of the conversation, PM said- Bill, you are welcome. I am happy, however, this time there has been a long gap in our meeting. We had a lot of talks before G20. You must have seen that G20 was moving in a way right-left, right-left. Now it has been fully born, we have been able to bring it to the mainstream and perhaps you must be experiencing it too.
Now read the entire conversation…
Bill Gates-Â The G20 has become more inclusive now. So it is great to see that India has really promoted things like digital innovation. The G20 can really be a mechanism that can improve relations. You know our foundation is excited by the positive results in India. We will take this to other countries together.
PM Modi-Â You are right, when I went to G-20 Summit in Indonesia, all the countries of the world were curious to know how you have brought about the digital revolution. Then I used to explain to them that I have made this technology democratic.
No one will have a monopoly on it. It will be of the public, by the public and the emerging talent among the public will add value to it. Due to which common people will also have trust in technology. Like there are 10 doctors, all MBBS, but more people go to one doctor. This shows that people have trust in that doctor.
Bill Gates- India is not only adopting technology, but also leading it… What are the things you are excited about?
On this question, PM said– I have built 2 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs in villages in the field of health, agriculture and education. I connect health centers with big hospitals with modern technology. Earlier, in the beginning, they used to think that the doctor is in front of them, how can he tell me without seeing me?
But later they understood that with the help of technology, even a doctor sitting hundreds of kilometres away is giving them the right treatment. People’s trust is increasing. As much as it happens in a big hospital, the same is happening in the small Arogya Mandir as well.
This is the magic of digital platforms… I want to provide the best education to children. I want to fill the gaps in teachers with the help of technology. Secondly, children are interested in visuals and story-telling.
I am also working towards creating such content. I am also bringing a big change in the agriculture sector here and want to change the mindset of people.
Bill Gates- I think India is bringing technology related to various subjects. One of them is that it should be available to everyone. In fact, those people should be uplifted who need it the most.
PM- When I used to hear about digital divide, I used to say, I will not let anything like this happen in my country. Today I want to provide digital facilities to villages. I think that is a very big target group. In my country, my experience is that women accept new things very fast. Whatever technology I bring suitable for them, it should become completely acceptable.
I have started a program ‘Namo Drone Didi’ and through this I have set two goals – First: I want to make three crore women in the villages of India Lakhpati Didi, that too from a poor family… I want to bring psychological change. Due to which I want to do big things and not small things.
Second: ‘Women in the village means – ‘Women in the village means – grazing buffaloes, grazing cows, milking… But it is not like that. I have given technology (drones) in their hands. All the people of the village should feel that this is changing our village.
I want to modernise agriculture, make it scientific. That is why I started the successful Drone Didi program. These days when I talk to Drone Didi, she is very happy and says that we did not know how to ride a bicycle, today we have become pilots, flying drones. The way of thinking has changed.
Now you must have seen that the world was not able to issue certificates in COVID, in my case, if I want to get the vaccine, I can go to the Covin app and get all the information about it. I had made Covin open source for everyone. Anyone could use it.
PM said that we lagged behind in the first and second industrial revolutions because we were slaves. This is the fourth industrial revolution in which the digital element is the biggest. I believe that India will achieve a lot in this.
I think the main thing is that the digital infrastructure is constantly getting richer. Now many people know about the identity system and digital payments. The government has digitalized all government payment programs.
But now when you are going into different areas, adding other issues like advice to farmers, registration of land, education of children, health records etc. PM Modi told how he uses AI.
He said, I used AI a lot in G20, I arranged for all the interpreters (translators) in the entire G20 premises using AI, I got the app downloaded on the mobile phones of all my drivers, and also got the guests sitting with them to download it.
Suppose it was a French language system. They used to speak to the driver in French, the driver used to listen in his own language and reply in his own language. That means communication with the driver could be done in any language. I did an experiment, I used to do a program in Kashi-Tamil Sangam, Tamil people had come there.
I cannot speak Tamil so I used AI. I spoke in Hindi and everyone heard my speech in Tamil. PM asked Bill Gates to take a selfie on Namo app and showed him how AI has been used in it.
After taking the selfie, Gates started seeing all the pictures with the PM. The PM said that such an AI feature has been used in it that you can see even a 20-year-old picture with me by taking a selfie. Earlier, when I used to go somewhere, people used to ask me for photos. Now I tell them to go to the Namo app and take a selfie with me.
Bill Gates- I would love to know your view on how India views AI?
PM Modi – If we use AI as a magic tool, it will be a great injustice or if I use AI to save myself from laziness, then it is wrong.
Suppose I have to write a letter to someone, then I will ask Chat-GPT to write my letter, then this is the wrong way. I should compete with Chat-GPT. No… you are not doing the right thing. Why did you not use this instead of this word. I will try to go ahead of AI.
Now as we have many languages, I tell AI to catch these languages. He told that I was talking to the robot and I saw that it was responding in the same tone in which I was talking to it. Then I tried to talk to the robot by changing its name but it did not respond. Then I said, I talked to your AI for 4 minutes but it has not recognized my voice yet. It is not responding till I am not saying its name. I want it to sense my voice, even if I do not say its name, it should talk to me. Then he said that he will work on it. I keep giving such challenges to AI again and again.
Bill Gates:Â Yes, AI is still in its infancy. I think anyone who uses it is surprised to find it very good and very bad in a single day. It does many of the things that you think are difficult. And then it fails to do those things that you think are easy. You know I started my journey in India from Hyderabad which was a good occasion because Microsoft was celebrating 25 years in the country. It was a great experience so I was challenging my team that we have to improve the accuracy.
PM said my jacket is made of recycled material
Bill asked Modi- India’s history has been environment friendly, how can it be connected with the present time. In response to this, PM showed his jacket and said, it is made of recycled material. He said, we had made the parameters of progress climate friendly, today all the parameters of our progress are anti-climate.
On the question of making the vaccine during the Corona period and delivering it across the country and the world, the PM said, ‘You educate the people and take them along. This is not a battle between virus vs government, but a battle between life vs virus.’
Bill is the 7th richest person in the world
Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates is the 7th richest person in the world. According to Forbes, his net worth is 131.3 billion dollars, which is about 10.94 lakh crore rupees. Bill Gates founded Microsoft in 1975. He remained the CEO of the company until 2000.
