Bill Gates would restart Microsoft as an AI-centric lab after 50 years — "Raising billions of dollars from a few sketch ideas"

If time travel were a reality in this era of AI, Microsoft's co-founder Bill Gates would have gone back a few years to restart the software giant as an AI-centric firm. Microsoft is arguably one of the most successful companies ever, and it briefly became the world's most valuable company ahead of Apple and NVIDIA due to its cloud and, obviously, AI efforts.

Fifty years into its successful software development business, Gates seemingly shared his intrusive thoughts, suggesting that he would start Microsoft all over again as an AI firm to take on OpenAI and Google.

Last year, the philanthropic billionaire shared the idea while speaking to CNBC:

"Today, somebody could raise billions of dollars for a new AI company [that’s just] a few sketch ideas."

However, he admitted that the venture would require a huge amount of cash to hit the ground running and have the potential to catch up with OpenAI's uncontested 2-year lead developing ChatGPT.

Interestingly, the Microsoft co-founder indicated that he'd strive to identify a unique niche in the AI landscape to meet a specific need, unlike the ever-emerging startups that are seemingly hell-bent on chasing AGI (Artificial General Intelligence).

While AI shows great promise, Gates admits that it would be virtually impossible to scale Microsoft's success. However, he claims AI presents a transformative opportunity for emerging AI startups to explore the landscape and identify their niche.

Billionaire Gates attributed Microsoft's success partly to his belief in software development. However, he doesn't think similar results can be replicated using AI:

“Just believing in AI, that’s not very unique. So I would have to develop some unique view of how you design AI systems — something that other people didn’t get.”

Bill Gates' AI dream for Microsoft might not be a utopia after all

Over the past few years, Microsoft's vision and efforts have seemingly shifted to generative AI, especially after it plunged a multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI. Microsoft insiders have voiced their concerns about the partnership, claiming the tech giant has turned into "a glorified IT department for the hot startup."

Related: Microsoft says OpenAI's GPT-4 is too expensive and isn't fast enough to meet consumer needs

Interestingly, similar sentiments are reportedly echoed across the tech giant's management, with a high-ranking executive referring to Copilot AI tools as "gimmicky." It follows one of Microsoft's recent Copilot updates, which had "absolutely ruined" the tool's user experience and was considered a step back compared to the previous version.

Read more: Microsoft's controversial Windows Recall might be Bill Gates' brainchild

While Bill Gates has since departed from his official capacity at Microsoft to focus on his philanthropy efforts via the Gates & Melinda Foundation, reports suggest that the billionaire is still intimately involved in the company's affairs and making broader chess moves in the AI landscape when recruiting high-profile executives.