Bill Gates’ predictions for 2022

“My social life is much more digital than it used to be … My personal world has never felt smaller than in the last 12 months,” wrote philanthropist and business mogul Bill Gates, who took to his blog to write to world that 2021 was the most challenging and unusual year of his life.

Every year, people look forward to GatesNotes, where Bill summarizes his year through posts on topics ranging from the books he loved to read that particular year to articles and reviews that testify to reflection.

Gates, known for making practical predictions in technology and “beyond,” has written a post about his year in review and how 2022 will provide Reasons for optimism after a difficult year, as he has titled his predictions in the aforementioned blog.

“My work has always been driven by a simple idea: the world can get better,” writes Gates. “A major setback like the pandemic makes it harder to believe that progress is possible. But nevertheless, I remain optimistic about our ability to build a world in which everyone has the opportunity to live a healthy and productive life. “

These are some of the highlights of your 2021 in review.

1. The Microsoft co-founder wrote that he is hopeful that the end of the COVID-19 pandemic is finally in sight. However, he cautions that it might be foolish to make another prediction; feels that the ‘acute phase’ of the pandemic will be behind us sometime in 2022.
2. The COVID-19 pandemic saw a large increase in the frequency and volume of misinformation. Bill Gates acknowledges the problems on his blog and writes that there is great room for improvement in finding ways to combat misinformation. He also referred to how “conspiracy theories”, which have involved the willingness of people to get vaccinated, have been part of the misinformation.
3. Bill Gates emphasized the enormous strides that we, as humanity, have made in terms of our use of technology. The business mogul opines that the way technology has grown and changed in the past two years and how it has accelerated even further would have taken decades, if not longer, otherwise. When it comes to creating new innovations, we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg ahead.
4. While digitization is here to stay, the technologies we use will continue to improve over time. Bill Gates believes that we are just the beginning of how software will enable even more innovation, and to reveal its full potential, analyze and understand the extent of the pandemic’s impact on digitization will take at least another decade.

Bill Gates predicts that there will be changes in three main areas:

Future of work

• The pandemic has changed the narrative around which companies previously linked employee productivity to their presence in the workplace. Structures that were once considered part of the office culture are slowly losing their importance and presence. He believes that these changes will intensify even more in the coming years as people adopt new ways of working.
• According to him, the future of work will be primarily hybrid. “I don’t see any reason why companies should make firm decisions right away,” he wrote. Businesses should take an A / B testing approach to remote work. That being said, with remote working, the only thing that has been compromised is spontaneity: cooler conversations, breaks for conversations outside of work, etc. However, technology can also solve this problem. Teammates can have screens to check what everyone is doing except when they want privacy and turn off the camera. This is how collaboration tools work today.
• Bill Gates then dives into the hottest topic in town: the Metaverse. Over the next two to three years, virtual meetings will shift from a 2D camera image grid format to a 3D space with a digital avatar, powered by the Metaverse that companies like NVIDIA, Meta and Microsoft are working on. The idea is that, in the future, people will find themselves virtually in a virtual world with the help of avatars, which would give them the feeling of meeting in person.
• In addition, the need for devices such as virtual reality glasses and motion capture gloves, which capture exact expressions, body movements and voice quality, would increase.
• Bill Gates reveals that Microsoft is already planning to start work on an interim vision starting next year that would use the user’s webcams to animate an avatar that is used in the current 2D setup.
• Speaking of companies working on 3D avatars, Bill Gates mentioned that from the opportunities he had to test prototypes that some of the companies are working on, he was impressed with the way companies now use spatial audio where sound it feels like it really is. coming from the direction of the person who is speaking. While this will still take some time, technology companies are working to provide experiences that are replicated in the real world.

Digitization in education

Although schools will return to face-to-face teaching, there will be an increase in the use of digital tools to improve the learning process of students. The challenges associated with the gap in access to quality education have been decreasing since the start of the pandemic and are expected to narrow further. The curriculum and content will become more personalized and interactive, allowing students to focus on their respective challenging areas.

Digitization in health

While telemedicine has been ubiquitous, its use and importance has only increased since the start of the pandemic. Technologies that facilitate telemedicine are expected to continue to improve in the coming years.

“Even after this pandemic ends, it is clear that much of the digitization it brought is here to stay “wrote Bill Gates.

Gates is also optimistic on the innovation front. “I expect a lot of progress as the R&D that was put on hold by the pandemic picks up momentum,” he says, adding that he is particularly excited about islatravir, a new HIV preventive drug which is currently in clinical trials. Likewise, expect good progress in diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease.

Matter of concern

In describing the problem areas, Gates says that people’s mistrust of governments it could stop or slow progress. For public institutions to address issues such as pandemic prevention and climate change, people should stop rejecting their guidance on principle, he notes.

“There are many reasons for this growing divide, including a 24-hour news cycle, a political climate that rewards making headlines about substantive debate, and the rise of social media,” says Gates. “This is part of a broader trend towards mistrust in institutions, and it is one of the issues that worries me the most for 2022.” In the future, governments may need to regulate online platforms to control this, he adds.

“I’ve never been a great person with a New Years resolution,” says Gates. “I don’t have any specific objective in mind for 2022. But what I do hope is that next year it will be much more established than this one.”