Bill Gates on Reddit

Bill Gates did another Reddit AMA, There were a couple questions about technological unemployment:

Someone: How much of an existential threat do you think machine superintelligence will be and do you believe full end-to-end encryption for all internet activity can do anything to protect us from that threat (eg. the more the machines can’t know, the better)??

Bill Gates: I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence. First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don’t understand why some people are not concerned.

Someone Else: Is it safe to choose a career in programming or will most coders below the expert level be replaced by automation solutions in the next decade?

Bill Gates: It is safe for now! It is also a lot of fun and helps shape your thinking on all issues to be more logical. There is a prospect for change in this area for the next generation but that is true for most fields and understanding how to program will always be useful.