Bill Gates Thought Computers Would Only Educate – Now He Says He Was 'Naive' About Misinformation

In an interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN, Gates reflected on his belief that giving people access to personal computers and the internet would be a net positive for society. As Cooper put it, Gates thought, “if people suddenly have access to all the information in the world, they'd be better educated because of it … it's gonna be better," Cooper said.

But as Gates now admits, "That turned out to be naive."

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Gates once believed that by making information readily available, people would naturally seek out correct information. "My naivete [was] that when we made information available, people would want correct information," he told CNBC Make It. But the rise of misinformation, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, proved him wrong. "In the case of the pandemic, they'd look for misinformation about vaccines and that would confirm their view that maybe I and Fauci had some malign motivation … that I never would have expected," he told CNN.

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One of the most prominent examples of this misinformation was the conspiracy theory that Gates was embedding microchips into vaccines to track people. Gates recounted how someone publicly confronted him, accusing him of this outlandish claim. He told them, "I really don't need to track you in particular," as he explained in a CNET interview.

The pandemic saw misinformation explode on social media and Gates became a major target. But instead of dwelling on it, he's now passing the baton to the younger generation. "Misinformation is the one where I – a little bit – had to punt and say, ‘Okay, we've handed this problem to the younger generation,'" he told CNBC in a separate interview.

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Gates’ experience with misinformation extends beyond just public encounters. The issue has also hit close to home, impacting his family. His youngest daughter, Phoebe, has been the target of online harassment linked to conspiracy theories about her father during the COVID-19 pandemic. In an interview with The Information, she spoke out against these misconceptions. 

Gates reflected on how hearing about his daughter's experiences made the issue more personal, telling CNBC, "Hearing my daughter talk about how she’d been harassed online … brought that into focus in a way I hadn't thought about before." This personal connection only deepened Gates’ resolve that combating misinformation, though difficult, is critical.

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Gates said the rise of artificial intelligence has only made it harder to tackle misinformation and this will be a key challenge moving forward. He stressed that while free speech is important, there's a need for boundaries, especially when misinformation can incite violence or stop people from taking lifesaving vaccines.

For Gates, the fight against misinformation isn’t over. But he acknowledges that solving this issue will now largely fall on future generations.

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