In an interview published Thursday by The New York Times, Bill Gates He did not walk with rodeos. At 69 and with the countdown to the closing of the Gates Foundation in 2045, the tycoon and philanthropist launched an unprecedented accusation against Elon Musk: it is responsible for directly or indirectly contributing to the death of thousands of children in the world, by eroding the health and development programs held by the United States.
“The richest man in the world has been involved in the death of the poorest children in the world,” Gates released, after detailing how the cuts promoted from the administration of Donald Trump – with the enthusiasm of Musk – devastated the budget of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a key piece in the fight against diseases such as malaria, HIV or polio.
The millionaire who did not go to the party … and cut the help flow
With lethal irony, Gates remembered the episode that, according to him, triggered the cuts: “He was the one who cut the USAID budget. He put it in the crusher, and all because it was not at a party that weekend.”
For Gates, it is a frivolous act with lethal consequences, a sample of how far there are some of the new billionaires of understanding power – and the responsibility – that they have in a world where every dollar can mean a life.
Unlike the philanthropists of two decades, Gates regrets that the new generations of millionaires, more dumping to personal cult and technological speculation, have abandoned humanitarian causes.
“It is not that we are running out of rich people. There will be more and more … but today’s rich should make more philanthropy. The rich from here twenty years should make more philanthropy,” he emphasizes, clearly marking white: the musk of this era.
AI can save lives
In a more hopeful tone, Gates projects that the current setbacks – which associates the management of Trump – will be passengers. “I do not think there will be one administration after another that cuts and cutting these things,” he trusts, and adds that his commitment remains to reduce infant mortality from here to 2045, the year in which its foundation will close its doors.
The other Battle horse of Gates is AI, which does not see how an apocalyptic threat, but as a tool to democratize medicine, education and agriculture. “A personal doctor driven by AI can be as good as the best doctor in the world … even better than what rich countries have today,” he says.
But it leaves a final warning: without determined investment in the social purpose, technological ones run the risk of being trapped in the bubble of immediate benefit. And then, the gap between the Musk and the rest of the world will become insurmountable.
