PM Narendra Modi Quizzes Microsoft’s Bill Gates About His Life And Favourite Book: Here’s What He Said

PM Narendra Modi and Bill Gates engaged in an interactive chat on Friday which was livestreamed online for the public. PM Modi shared his insights about the country’s growth in the field of AI, what he thinks about the evolving technology and how AI could help improve people and their skills in the long run.

However, the tete-a-tete between Gates and PM Modi also gave us a chance to get more personal details about the Microsoft co-founder and how he sees technology moving in the years to come.

Gates also talked about his origin into the tech industry, for which he feels very lucky and excited in equal measure. “I am so lucky I was born at a time when the chip miracle happened. I got a very good education. Because I have an optimistic view in life, dropping out of school to take the risk didn’t seem that dangerous to me,” Gates mentioned during his interaction with PM Modi.

The Microsoft co-founder then touched upon his passion for tech and what inspires him to keep going in this arena. “The most exciting thing for me is to see people use technology. When I go into a classroom and see them using it. I wanted software for my own curiosity, so that I could take courses online, and to see people being empowered by these tools, it is very gratifying to see how technology is improving people’s lives,” he adds.

And finally, PM Modi speaks to him about books and asks which book had the greatest influence on him. Gates said, “One of the books I can talk about is The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker. He further explains the reason for liking this book by saying, ‘If you learn about the world, you see all the shortcomings such, children are still dying and the more you read, you see things are bleak. But the truth is we have made an incredible progress. So, I felt that book captures the duality of life in a brilliant way.”

Bill Gates is visiting India as a part of Microsoft’s 25 years in the country and during his time, he also met with Microsoft employees at the Hyderabad base recently.