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Decoder with Nilay Patel · Tech Strategy & Big Tech · October 2026
Nilay Patel closed by asking what a young person should hold on to as a source of hope, given widespread nihilism about AI. Gates said that even he finds a more capable AI intimidating, and that the disruption ahead will be as tumultuous as any period in human history even in the best case.
…pandemics. That one didn't work the way I expected. But usually that galvanizes our attention. And so over the next several years, certainly in the cyber domain, because there's a business model there, you will see a lot of attacks, different in terms of scale than anything we've seen in the past.
…just take a beat. There is a lot of nihilism out there. I feel it very keenly. If you were a young person today and you were listening to Bill Gates say it's about to be 20 years of disruption and at the end of it, robots might be building houses. What would you hold on to as a source of hope?
Throughout human history, we've been dealing with a shortage of food and disease and war. Harari writes eloquently about the past. And it is ironic that now that we have this sort of Pandora's box that will take food shortage, which is still a real thing, not in the U.S., but in Africa, will take diseases, which the human suffering is unbelievable and solve all these things. It comes with it such an effect on jobs and a sense of a unique contribution that, you know, like I think, okay, the way I orchestrate resources to eradicate malaria, you know, I'm pretty unique in my life experience that lets me do that. And when the AI says to me, no, I'm better than you. You go play pickleball and I'll get back to you. I'm going to take care of this. I will, I mean, it's kind of humorous, but it's not humorous. So somebody who's young today and wanting to make a unique contribution, it is very intimidating that the AI is so powerful. That's why the crisis in the math community is going to be mirrored, you know, everywhere. If you're in your 20s today, you know, during this 20-year period, you can take…
Bill, I appreciate you sending the alarm and I appreciate you being on Decoder. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
I'd like to thank Bill Gates for joining me and thank you for listening to this episode of Decoder. To get new episodes every Monday and Thursday, subscribe to our YouTube channel at DecoderPod and find us on TikTok and Instagram under at DecoderPod for more fun stuff we put out almost every day.…