Bill Gates, 69, Talks to AARP About How He Rose From Rebellious Kid to Microsoft Cofounder

How did the tension between you and your parents resolve?

That was all because I went to an analyst, Charles Cressey, who really reordered my thinking. Like, Hey, why are you fighting this battle? A) it’s not an important battle. It doesn’t get you anywhere. And B) they love you. That was very helpful to me in viewing my parents as on my side. By age 13, I sort of reached an equilibrium where I wasn’t going out of my way to pick a rule and make fun of it or try to test it.  

Bill Gates in 1983, surrounded by the early machines that shaped the digital age.

Doug Wilson/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images

But as a teen you were sneaking out in the middle of the night to do computer coding, right?

That was less about being rebellious [than] about how darn interesting it was. Software was kind of this magical thing, because the microprocessor was going to take software from something that’s just an afterthought — because hardware was everything, then — to something even more important.

There’s lots of talk about how artificial intelligence is going to change the world. How do you view AI?

What AI means — and this will sound weird, but it’s the best way to think of it — is that intelligence almost becomes free. For example, if you were in a meeting with a doctor, and they said complicated things, the idea is that the AI sits in that doctor-patient meeting, and then it’s available to talk with you. It can explain your medical bill, it can explain that MRI outcome. It’s almost like getting free white-collar workers. It’s still not totally reliable, but that’s being worked on, and people shouldn’t assume that that won’t get fixed. We also have to think about how do we deal with somebody who’s got ill intent, who’s using this tool for a cyberattack, or somebody who’s trying to defraud. Some of these scams, which are bad enough without AI, become even more effective if you have AI tools.... So all the good things you hear about AI and most of the things to worry about are absolutely correct.

Is this the best time in history to be 50 or older?

Oh, certainly, by a long shot. You know, 20 years from now will be even better. I’ve met with Alzheimer’s researchers, and these new medicines — particularly if we figure out how to use them early on — are very promising. I saw my dad face Alzheimer’s, and it affected his last years a lot. I hope that there’ll be fewer people having to go through that.

You’ll be 70 in October. How are you changing with age?

I have to say, I’m enjoying these years as much as even those incredible years in my early life: The Microsoft years were incredible. And now, these older years, where my work is mostly foundation-focused, are pretty incredible. I would not have guessed when I was young that this part of my life would be as fun or engaging. I take a lot more time off than I did in my 20s and 30s — I was pretty monomaniacal — but I still work pretty long hours. With the kinds of things the foundation does, we can save millions of lives if we do it the right way.

What about staying physically fit?

I’m lucky enough to be healthy, but you need to invest in that, which I never did until I was 60. Fortunately, I enjoy playing tennis and pickleball quite a bit, so I get about half of my exercise in a form that’s purely fun. It’s exercise I would do even if it didn’t benefit me.

Are you optimistic about the future?

Overall, yes, I’m very optimistic, because I get to be involved in incredible innovation, whether it’s reducing the damage of Alzheimer’s or even preventing Alzheimer’s, or ways we’ll deal with cancer or the various diseases that are worse in poor countries or climate change or education. This pace at which we’re going to improve our health and be able to have what’s like a personal tutor, those are really good things. But, you know, it’s not like it happens automatically. We have to figure out how to trust each other and work together in order to reap the benefits of these innovations. I hope we will. I believe we will.