- In 1984, Bill Gates went on a radio show to talk about his plan to get PCs in every household.
- Gates talked about the importance of graphics to make computers more accessible and easy to use.
- The Microsoft cofounder also envisioned getting computers "to learn" the same way humans might.
A newly unearthed interview from the 1980s features Bill Gates talking about one of the earliest iterations of artificial intelligence.
The Microsoft cofounder spoke with the hosts of "The Famous Computer Cafe," a tech-centric radio show that ran in the mid-1980s, according to Kay Savetz, a podcaster and web publisher who found the lost tapes and has raised money to digitize the interviews.
"The Interviews on these radio episodes provided a contemporary account of the dawn of the microcomputer revolution — not tainted by nostalgia," Savetz told Business Insider in an email. "They are a great piece of history now, a time capsule."
Savetz added that the interviews were thought to be lost and that it was a "small miracle" the tapes were found and well preserved.
Gates' interview took place on November 17, 1984. He had just turned 29. Microsoft was only nine years old with less than 900 employees, and according to the US Census Bureau, only 8.2% of US households had a personal computer.
When asked about his expectations for the near future, Gates said he believed everyone would have a PC in their homes.
"I'm a believer that eventually we'll have a machine on every desktop and a machine in every home," he said in the interview.
To achieve that, Gates said computers would have to become easier and fun to use. He explained that graphics would play a key role, so that computers could display pictures, "good-looking text," and a "real-life document."
But another key advancement Gates mentioned hinted at AI.
"Another thing that we're trying to get the computer to do is learn," Gates said in the interview. "That is, after you've used it for a while, then you'll be able to refer back to something you've done previously so you don't have to repeat those commands."
He added that the computer will be able to recognize mistakes the same way "a human coworker might and aid you in the working process with the machine."
Gates said at the time that Microsoft was calling this "softer software," which he described as a "very tough piece of research" to get computers to that level.
The interviewer asked if the idea was similar to artificial intelligence.
"Yes, it is," Gates responded. "But that term is kind of loaded right now. When people hear artificial intelligence, they think of robots and things that are, you know, going to take over the world and that type of stuff. Softer software refers to the simple steps we can take to make the machine learn and recognize what it is you're trying to do."
Forty years after the interview, Microsoft has been looking to integrate AI into its suite of software products, while Gates, long after he stepped down as the company's CEO, predicts the technology will bring a new world order where "AI agents" or digital personal assistants will change how people interact with computers and "upend the software industry," Business Insider's Ashley Stewart reported.
"In the extreme case," Gates said in the 1984 interview, "once software gets 100% soft, then we will have achieved human level of intelligence. That's a long ways away."
Spokespeople for Gates and Microsoft did not return a request for comment from BI.