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Philanthropy essential for societal innovation, says Bill Gates

Nurdianah Md Nur
Nurdianah Md Nur • 3 min read
Philanthropy essential for societal innovation, says Bill Gates
(From left) Bill Gates and Russell Tham, IMDA's chairman and Temasek's managing director, Head of Emerging Technologies, at ATxInspire firechat on May 6. Photo: IMDA
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While tech giants tout artificial intelligence (AI) as a panacea for everything from productivity to drug discovery, Bill Gates says real progress on the world’s toughest problems will hinge on philanthropy, not profit.

“If you’re optimising for human improvement rather than just from a pure profit motive, you’ll need to tap into deep innovation,” the Microsoft co-founder and co-chair of the Gates Foundation says at the ATxInspire event in Singapore on May 6.

He continues: “There are some things capitalism doesn’t do a good job of. For example, malaria is a disease that is only in poor countries, and those poor countries can’t create the tools to solve that problem.”

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