{"id":7911,"date":"2025-05-29T19:46:21","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T19:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/29\/microsofts-brad-smith-warns-against-possible-a-i-inequalities\/"},"modified":"2025-05-29T19:46:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T19:46:30","slug":"microsofts-brad-smith-warns-against-possible-a-i-inequalities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/29\/microsofts-brad-smith-warns-against-possible-a-i-inequalities\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft\u2019s Brad Smith Warns Against Possible A.I. Inequalities"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Microsoft president Brad Smith speaks at Web Summit Vancouver 2025 on May 28. Photo By Vaughn Ridley\/Web Summit via Sportsfile via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The rise of A.I. is frequently described as a new industrial revolution, following the sweeping economic transformations brought by mechanized manufacturing, mass production and the digital age. Because of this, A.I. leaders should study history carefully to avoid repeating past mistakes, Microsoft<\/a> president Brad Smith<\/a> said during a talk at Web Summit Vancouver yesterday (May 28).<\/p>\n

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Smith emphasized the importance of equitable access to emerging technologies. He pointed to the uneven global diffusion of electricity following Thomas Edison\u2019s invention of the light bulb\u2014a foundational moment in the Second Industrial Revolution. \u201cHow can it be that we moved from electricity to computers and now A.I., and we haven\u2019t yet even finished diffusing electricity itself?\u201d he asked, noting that hundreds of millions of people still lack access to electricity nearly 150 years later.<\/p>\n

Calling this disparity potentially the \u201cgreatest tragedy\u201d in the history of technology, Smith urged the A.I. industry to ensure its benefits are distributed more broadly. \u201cWe can do better, not just to create better technology, but to bring the benefits of that technology to everyone around the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Widespread A.I. adoption, he argued, depends on significant investment in the infrastructure that underpins innovation\u2014a domain where Microsoft is making a major play. The company plans to invest $80 billion this year in A.I. and data center infrastructure across 40 countries. This infrastructure, alongside platforms and applications, forms what Smith described as the \u201ctech stack\u201d of the A.I. economy.<\/p>\n

Past industrial revolutions also built out such tech stacks. The spread of electricity, for example, spurred demand for fuels, turbines, electrical grids, transformers, wiring and appliances\u2014industries that in turn created new categories of employment, said Smith.<\/p>\n

He also stressed the critical role of education in unlocking job growth. During the First Industrial Revolution, the U.K. pulled ahead by training workers to use iron and new machinery. The U.S. later surged ahead by producing engineers skilled in electricity and machine tools, and reaped further gains by embracing computer science education during the Information Age. These examples, said Smith, underscore why teaching A.I. skills \u201cwill need to become one of the great causes of our industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ultimately, Smith argued, investment in education\u2014not optimism alone\u2014is what will determine whether A.I. augments human labor or replaces it. \u201cHope by itself is not a strategy,\u201d he said. \u201cI think history offers some important lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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