Mayukh Saha

Mayukh Saha

August 12, 2024

Bill Gates Openly Disagrees With One of Elon Musk’s Major Life Goals

The philanthropy of Bill Gates is well-known. His Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been in the news for routinely caring for the world’s impoverished regions. But recently, Gates questioned the integrity and current priorities of Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Twitter, and if it would relate to him being a good philanthropist. In fact, he also took issue with Musk’s ambition to send people to Mars.

In a recent interview that Gates had with the BBC, the co-founder of Microsoft was asked if he believed Musk to be a good philanthropist. The co-founder responded by stating that he didn’t think Musk qualified as one currently- but that could potentially change with time. 

Bill Gates Doesn’t Think Elon Musk Has Joined The Ranks Of The Philanthropists

It would be a wrong assumption to think that Bill Gates only had criticism in store for Musk. In fact, Gates mentioned, “Things like Tesla are having a positive impact, even without being a form of philanthropy. I think someday he will join the rank of philanthropists using his ingenuity.” But, he did question the vision that Musk had for colonizing Mars.

It has been well-documented that SpaceX, the space exploration venture of Musk, has been spending aggressively on spacecraft. The reasoning behind it was to send humans to Mars. When Amol Rajan, the journalist, asked Gates if this was a good idea, Gates stated, “Not in my view.” Rather, he considered funding the vaccine development would be a much better utility of the immense cash that Musk had. “It’s actually quite expensive to go to Mars. You can buy measles vaccines and save lives for a thousand dollars per life saved.

Speaking about the AI that Tesla routinely used in its vehicles, and had been developing for further uses, Bill Gates said, “It will help us look into medical and scientific questions. It’s not just robots, it’s helping to read and write as well. In fact, there’s been more progress there than on the robotic side. Both of them will give us much higher productivity.” Following that, Gates had a lively discussion about conspiracy theories that played a part during the covid pandemic. The billionaire co-founder mentioned, “During the pandemic, there were tens of millions of messages that I intentionally caused it, or I’m tracking people. It’s true I’m involved with vaccines, but I’m involved with vaccines to save lives.

Keep Reading: Billionaire promised to die ‘broke.’ $8 billion dollars later, the world is a better place for it.

Sources

  1. Bill Gates Openly Disagrees With One of Elon Musk’s Major Life Goals.” The Street. Jeffrey Quiggle. February 3, 2023.
  2. Bill Gates says Elon Musk’s ambition to colonize Mars is not a good use of money.” CNBC. Ryan Browne. February 3, 2023.