Why AI Won’t Destroy Us with Microsoft’s Brad Smith | What Now? with Trevor Noah Podcast

I Put on a suit (no, I’m not returning to The Daily Show) and head to Microsoft.

Trevor NoahhostBrad Smithguest

Oct 6, 202439mWatch on YouTube

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Transcript

35 min read · 6,759 words

0:00 – 3:46
Opening Teaser and Welcome to Brad Smith
1. TNTrevor Noah
  If we think about that scaling continuously and growing and growing and growing, you can get to a place where even if you're optimistic, AI is fundamentally doing everything for us. Thinking of it in the short term and thinking of, of it in the long term, how do you see it philosophically beyond just a product?
2. BSBrad Smith
  Philosophically, I have always wanted it to be a part of something that advances technology and uses it to make people better. Now, 100 years, 500 years from now, people may look back and say, "Wow, this guy, you know, Brad Smith, he was, like, a real backwards thinker."
3. TNTrevor Noah
  [laughs]
4. BSBrad Smith
  "He didn't, he didn't have the vision to see that we were creating a new species that would replace humanity." I don't want to replace humanity. [upbeat music]
5. TNTrevor Noah
  This is What Now? with Trevor Noah. [upbeat music] Brad Smith, welcome to the podcast.
6. BSBrad Smith
  It's great, as always, to be with you, Trevor.
7. TNTrevor Noah
  This is really a, a fascinating and fun experience for me because, um, I didn't plan it, which, um, like most of my favorite things in life, is how I like things to be. I planned being here with you, you know, uh, at the CEO Summit here in Microsoft in Seattle. That's why I'm wearing a suit. This is not my usual attire.
8. BSBrad Smith
  [laughs]
9. TNTrevor Noah
  But when I knew I was gonna be spending the week here, I thought to myself, "Man, if there's one person I'd love to have on the podcast, it's somebody I'll often have the most fascinating conversations with," and that's Brad Smith. Not just the vice chair and president of Microsoft, but a thinker. I, I, I, I really appreciate you as a deep thinker, and you and I have been... I mean, I've known you for... How many years has it been now?
10. BSBrad Smith
  Since October 2016.
11. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah, look at that.
12. BSBrad Smith
  Yeah.
13. TNTrevor Noah
  2016. Wow, what a different time that was. Um. [laughs] Yeah, but we've, we've known each other for a long time, and you've been gracious enough, you know, to take me around the world of Microsoft, and I've loved it, not even in a commercial way, by the way, just as like-
14. BSBrad Smith
  Right
15. TNTrevor Noah
  ... a lover of tech. You love tech. I love tech. You love the world. I love the world, and trying to think about it. And I thought, I would love to have you on to speak about everything that we're, we're looking at today. You know, AI, geopolitics, elections, misinformation, disinformation, really everything that affects everybody in the world right now, which is, is unique to have one person who has to deal with all of that, and I think that's what you do in your role at Microsoft. So thank you for taking the time. Thank you for being here.
16. BSBrad Smith
  Oh, my, my gosh, yeah, we, you and I have had so many fascinating opportunities. Now you help invent and literally patent new products-
17. TNTrevor Noah
  [laughs]
18. BSBrad Smith
  ... among many other things.
19. TNTrevor Noah
  It's been a while. I need a new patent. I haven't patented something in a while. I mean, I need to work on it.
20. BSBrad Smith
  Well, so one thing I can tell you, unfortunately, is y- you can't get a new patent-
21. TNTrevor Noah
  [laughs]
22. BSBrad Smith
  ... unless you have a new invention, so. [laughs]
23. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah, that's the, that's the hardest part. That's exactly the hardest part. So, you know, to, to situate you first of all, I was, I was trying to explain this to a friend. I said, "I'm gonna be having a conversation with Brad Smith," and he's like, "Brad Pitt?" I said, "No, Brad Smith."
24. BSBrad Smith
  Yeah. [laughs]
25. TNTrevor Noah
  "Brad Smith." It happened so many times. I said, "No, Brad Smith from Microsoft." I said, "The vice chair and the president of Microsoft." And he said, "Well, I thought Satya Nadella's the president." "No, Satya's the CEO. This man is the president." I love that you have the title president of Microsoft, 'cause I believe in many ways you have the job that many presidents in the world have, and that is you travel around. You're on the road how many days a year?
26. BSBrad Smith
  Oh, probably 120, I would guess.
27. TNTrevor Noah
  120.
28. BSBrad Smith
  Something like that.
29. TNTrevor Noah
  Like that's, even to me as a touring comedian-
30. BSBrad Smith
  I know
3:46 – 6:21
Building Trust Across Borders: Electricity, AI and Data Centers
1. TNTrevor Noah
  As a leader, how are you stitching together something that could so easily fall apart because it so often does? What do you think it is you understand about communicating and deal-making that maybe some world leaders don't understand right now?
2. BSBrad Smith
  I think you really hit the nail on the head, Trevor. The key to permission to invest is to ensure that we're doing it in a way that genuinely benefits somebody else.
3. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah.
4. BSBrad Smith
  And not just superficially or apparently does. And when I just think about, call it this AI moment, I'm just so struck by two things. One is what never happened for electricity. Um, electricity is like AI. You can't have electricity without a massive investment in power plants and a grid.
5. TNTrevor Noah
  Mm-hmm.
6. BSBrad Smith
  And I just think it's a really sobering thing that here we are, it's literally 142 years after the first power plant lit up the first building in Manhattan, and this morning there are still 700 million people in the world that don't have electricity.
7. TNTrevor Noah
  Right.
8. BSBrad Smith
  43% of the people who live in Africa. And I often look at that and go, "How can this be? What happened?" And, you know, the answer is it was enormously expensive. Capital didn't flow around the world. Ironically, when some of the colonial powers became colonial powers, they built railway lines to extract mineral wealth from these-
9. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah
10. BSBrad Smith
  ... places-
11. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah
12. BSBrad Smith
  ... but never built the power plants that would genuinely create the basis for prosperity for everybody. So to have a company or really a group of companies that is prepared to spend the money to do what no one ever did, that's a fantastic thing. Now, the flip side. People don't necessarily want to rely on a foreigner. Last year in, literally in France, I had, um, a meeting. We were talking with the government minister, and he, he said, "I am worried that I'll be too dependent on you." And I said, "Well, just remember, we're gonna build these massive buildings- We're not building them on wheels, so once they're built, they're in France [laughs] and they will be subject to Fre- French law and French regulation.
13. TNTrevor Noah
  Uh-huh.
14. BSBrad Smith
  We have to win your trust, and we have to show that we are going to follow French law, and it's a new equation.
15. TNTrevor Noah
  I-
6:21 – 10:37
Diplomacy and AI as a Unifying Idea
1. TNTrevor Noah
  in a world where so many people think business and geopolitics and politics in general is a zero-sum game, you seem to be an outlier in that field. You seem to be forging relationships. You seem to be building bridges. You seem to be creating diplomatic ties where they may not necessarily exist. It feels like Europe is on the edge. It feels like many parts of Africa are on the edge. You know, you see how many c- coups or, you know, civil wars we- we're, we're, we're facing. The Middle East is on the edge. You're in a position where you are oftentimes speaking to world leaders who themselves do not necessarily have a good relationship with the country that you've just come from, and you have to make a deal with them, and you have to agree with them, and you have to find consensus. What do you think some of our leaders might be missing right now in the way they conduct their politics? Like, we don't seem to be very good at sitting down at tables anymore. You know, it seems like we're very quick to get to the conflicts, and maybe I have confirmation bias in my own memory, but I remember as a child watching the news, there were always these conferences, and there were always these summits, and there were always these peace talks and negotiations, and people always at tables. What is it that seems to be lost in the world of diplomacy?
2. BSBrad Smith
  There are some real serious differences in the world, and I, I won't ... I'll never go as far as to say everybody is equally good, they just have misunderstandings. And at the same time, um, I think that if people don't sit down and spend m- more time talking, they may miss the opportunities to find common ground. One of the interesting things that I have found in the last year is if there is a unifying idea, it's around artificial intelligence. No country or people or set of leaders anywhere that I have found wants to see humans subjugated by machines.
3. TNTrevor Noah
  Hmm.
4. BSBrad Smith
  No military leader I've met wants to see a machine start a war. And the thing that I think that should remind us of is w- on a daily basis, it's so easy to focus on what makes you different from someone else. And if you look at, like, the history of the United States, enormous discord, disagreement in, say, 1940, 1941, and then all of a sudden the country came together when it was attacked at Pearl Harbor and it had a common foe. I don't think we should think about AI as a common foe, but the fact that it's different is creating an opportunity for us to remember, you know what? We are all human beings. We all have these things in common. Maybe we should spend a little bit more time remembering that, whether we live in a single community or a country, but ... Or a, we ... Hey, let's remember, it's a pretty small planet, you know, y- when you get down to it. You know, so, you know, but y- you do need to bring people together, and you need to show them something that's different from themselves sometimes for them to see that.
5. TNTrevor Noah
  You know, it's, it's funny, though, uh, w- when you say the thing about AI, I also think it's interesting how human beings are a lot more clear-eyed on what they perceive good or bad to be when it comes from an external actor. You know? So if you say to people, "Should we start wars?" They go, "Well, you know, the thing with war and the thing w- ... " But if you say, "Should a machine be allowed to start a war?" People go, "No."
6. BSBrad Smith
  Yeah. [laughs]
7. TNTrevor Noah
  Immediately. It's amazing how clear-eyed people will be when you take it away from the human, you know, and you say, "Okay. Can a, can a robot decide who gets money and who doesn't?" Then you're like, "No. No. That's crazy." Then you're like, "But then why should a person decide that?" But they're like, "Well, that's different and ... " And I, I don't know. I, I, I find it interesting because AI, for me personally, is illuminating the human experience. You know? On the podcast, for instance, we s- we spoke to Sam Altman, and this was right after he got, like, fired and then rehired, and it was the whole debacle at, at OpenAI that affected Microsoft and everyone, really. But, you know, Sam speaks about AI from, like, a pioneer's perspective. Sam thinks about the long-term future, this idea of what it can be, what it can do, and the utopia, and I think, you know, that's ... it's necessary for somebody like that who's building it. You know,
10:37 – 13:47
Tools and Weapons: The Three-Legged Stool
1. TNTrevor Noah
  in, in your book, Tools and Weapons, that you co-authored with Carol Ann Browne, you talk about the fact that it's not black and white. And I, I, I really appreciate that point of view because many people will say, "AI, good. AI, bad." But what you argue is, like dynamite that was used to clear paths for cars and roads to be built and then also used to blow up, you know, people's homes or to, to wage wars, all technology is a weapon and a tool. Why is it important for us to think about AI as a weapon and a tool, or any tech, really?
2. BSBrad Smith
  Well, I think it is because any tech, um ... You know, one of the examples we use in our book is a simple one. Like, you can use a broom to sweep the floor. You can use a broom to hit somebody over the head.
3. TNTrevor Noah
  My mom did both. [laughs]
4. BSBrad Smith
  [laughs] Yeah. And so sobering when you see that humans are just as ingenious and creative in using technology to do bad things as good things.
5. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah.
6. BSBrad Smith
  And, and this does go, I think, to the role that I ... I believe the tech sector is playing better than it did five years ago and needs to continue to get better, substantially better, I would say, five years from now. Um, hey, we need to worry about both of this. Let's, let's be excited about all the good things, and I am fundamentally an optimist about all the good things that can be done. But oh my gosh, if you don't anticipate, if you don't build in guardrails, um, if you don't use technology to defend against the abuses of technology, its weaponization, that is what happened with social media, to be honest, in my view. It, it's not that Facebook did not weaponize social media, but the Russians did.
7. TNTrevor Noah
  Right. Okay.
8. BSBrad Smith
  And because people on the West Coast of the United States were so idealistic c- that they didn't perceive that h- happening, we were not prepared as an industry. What I find fascinating is I think the healthiest and most successful societies are fundamentally a three-legged stool. There is the government or the public sector, there is business or the private sector, and there is the nonprofit or NGO or civil society.
9. TNTrevor Noah
  Mm-hmm.
10. BSBrad Smith
  There's three legs, and this is where governments, they absolutely should be pushing and regulating. That's their job. It's where NGOs need to be keeping us all honest by criticizing us and then offering suggestions. But the more powerful the technology-
11. TNTrevor Noah
  Mm-hmm
12. BSBrad Smith
  ... the, the more formidable the weapon.
13. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah.
14. BSBrad Smith
  Um, and we gotta think about both.
15. TNTrevor Noah
  Hmm.
16. BSBrad Smith
  People in business say, "Government's too powerful." People in government or the nonprofit community say, "No, business is too powerful." And unfortunately, I think that the most politically astute social scientists in the world sometimes work for the Russian government, and they spend an enormous amount of energy trying to sow the dissensions between us.
13:47 – 16:14
Russian Disinformation and Global Perceptions
1. TNTrevor Noah
  Let, let's talk a little bit about the, the Russia thing. Right before the war in Ukraine started, I remember Microsoft was one of the first to issue a warning to the world to say, "Hey, we think Russia's about to invade Ukraine." And you based this on a wide range of informations. Help me understand this. You know, you are seeing how Russia is trying to either sow dissent in the world or create and, and dissem- disseminate misinformation in the world. And from a US perspective, it seems pretty clear. It's like, this is what Russia's doing. But then in, in many parts of Africa and, and in parts of South America, there's a very different opinion on Russia. They go, "Well, well, Russia's trying to help us grow crops," or, "Russia's trying to help us with our power plant technology," or, "Russia's trying to help us with our science, and the rest of the Western world isn't helping with that." Is, is that split real, or are we just perceiving the same thing differently?
2. BSBrad Smith
  Y- I think most of Europe is united because they've seen, you know, Russian tanks and Russian missiles-
3. TNTrevor Noah
  Right
4. BSBrad Smith
  ... and Russian troops in, in invade the sovereign territory, the soil of Ukraine. I, I think what the Russians have also done is they do run, um, what we call a cyber influence operation, a disinformation, uh, effort on a global scale. The key to misleading the public is to tell a story that just might be true.
5. TNTrevor Noah
  Hmm.
6. BSBrad Smith
  If it's too fanciful-
7. TNTrevor Noah
  Hmm
8. BSBrad Smith
  ... it will be rejected because people will listen to it and go, "No, that's crazy." You need to understand the people that you're trying to impact, and you then need to be creative. You need to weave a tale, if you will, that is just plausible enough, and then you use technology to s- get it going, sometimes now with deepfakes-
9. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah
10. BSBrad Smith
  ... but more often not, and then you use social media to fan the flames. Um, you know, one of the more sobering things, if you will, um, that I r- remember someone sharing in recent months was somebody who had talked with Navalny when, you know, he was, you know, i- in Germany for a time, and he said, "You have to remember, they're not trying to persuade people that Vladimir Putin is trustworthy. They're trying to persuade people that no one is trustworthy."
11. TNTrevor Noah
  Mm-hmm.
16:14 – 20:31
The TikTok Debate
1. TNTrevor Noah
  There's one thing I wanna go back to, I guess, you know, in the social media space. Um, TikTok is on everybody's lips right now. I speak to a lot of young people who say, "Why, why is TikTok being banned?" And I, I know there's a large community of young people who say, like, "TikTok seems so positive. It seems like a space where there's varying opinions. There's niche as well," which, which is novel for a, for a social media platform at, at that scale. And then there are people who work in government who say, "No, this technology is the enemy of the United States. The, the Chinese government needs to divest from it in any k- way whatsoever." You've been in a unique position in that, like, I remember it was reported that, you know, Microsoft was one of the companies that was sort of asked to look at buying TikTok when it was in the, the Trump administration. So how, how do you look at this situation? Because it, it seems a lot more complicated than we would like on the face of it, you know? And then also, is there a world where this thing can continue to exist in a more positive way, or is it even existing in a negative way, or is that just how it's been spun?
2. BSBrad Smith
  Well, I, first of all, I think it would be a shame if TikTok were to go away. Um, anything that, you know, 100 or 200 million Americans decide to use, you wanna respect their, you know, basic ability to keep doing something that they've chosen to do. I think it would be a shame if it were to go away because there would be less competition in the marketplace. What I would say is, in a way that sort of makes it a little simpler, uh, to be honest, the fundamental issue today is that the Chinese government is not comfortable with American technology services for the Chinese consuming public. That's why you don't see Facebook, uh, you know, in, in China. You don't see Instagram. You don't see X or Twitter.
3. TNTrevor Noah
  Mm-hmm.
4. BSBrad Smith
  Um, you barely even see LinkedIn. The US government has now taken the same position. It is not comfortable with Chinese technology providing a consumer service to such a large part of the population. Um, the thing that is different is whereas the Chinese, in my vi- opinion, as at the governmental level, basically took action as soon as they saw American services start to grow-
5. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah
6. BSBrad Smith
  ... the US government was slower and so TikTok-
7. TNTrevor Noah
  Oh
8. BSBrad Smith
  ... became extremely popular. And, you know, even the law that Congress passed that the president signed, you know, banning it could happen, but really what they're trying to do is require the sale of it. Now, then you get to the, the second question which is, should governments care about these things? What I've found, and have always found most striking about TikTok, is that the debate started around privacy, and I think it is relatively feasible to, you know, protect the privacy of people's data even when the service is controlled by a foreign company. But the risk of use for, call it, you know, disinformation, cyber influence operations, and, you know, that's where I think that the US government has now decided that it's just not comfortable. Having a tool that can reach so many people so quickly and just use an algorithm to, you know, determine what people see next become a potential engine of disinformation. So what is the answer? Um, you know, we'll let the courts figure out whether, you know, everything was done properly, et cetera. Um, but I think ultimately if TikTok, you know, needs to be sold, you'd want it to be sold to, um, you know, probably companies and brands that the public trusts. Um, that would enable the service to continue in all the ways that people currently value it, and it could address the concern that emerged in the United States at the governmental level at the same time.
9. TNTrevor Noah
  We're gonna continue this conversation right after this short break. [upbeat music]
20:31 – 22:35
A Principled Company: Defense and Protecting Civilians
1. TNTrevor Noah
  You're in a unique position, you know, as, as this giant company that is tasked with observing technology, observing information, looking at what's happening in a space that sort of doesn't exist and yet is ubiquitous. You are also based everywhere and nowhere, and, and one of the complexities that has now arisen with many companies, specifically American companies, is where does the loyalty of the company lie? Because I think it applies to Microsoft.
2. BSBrad Smith
  Yeah.
3. TNTrevor Noah
  But I think honestly it's something that every company, and maybe even many countries, are going to need to start thinking about, and that is how do we find the balance between what we think is right and wrong and what somebody else thinks is right or wrong when we are in their domain?
4. BSBrad Smith
  I think we need to be a principled company. It really, in my view, especially on these issues of sort of war and peace, and that's fundamentally what we're talking about with these cyber attacks and the like, you know, there are a couple of principles. I mean, one is we work to protect countries defensively. We don't engage in offensive operations. You know, there are other companies that-
5. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah
6. BSBrad Smith
  ... do that.
7. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah.
8. BSBrad Smith
  I respect that, but that's not us. I don't think it works to do what we do and, and be engaged in offensive activities. Second, maybe most importantly, we believe in the protection of civilians. I mean, I think that's a global principle. It's a universal principle. It was one of the most important ideas to emerge from World War II. The whole world came together in 1949 in Geneva, Switzerland. It was called the fourth version of the Geneva Convention.
9. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah.
10. BSBrad Smith
  And I feel very comfortable saying that, you know, we stand up to protect civilians, whether they're, you know, French or, you know, American or South African or Kenyan or, you know, in other places. And, and, um, I think that principle and other similar principles are ways that we can sort of synthesize or unify, uh, you know, uh, the role we play everywhere.
22:35 – 25:23
Elections, Social Media and Lessons Not Yet Learned
1. TNTrevor Noah
  When you, when you talk about protecting people, America's getting ready for another election. In fact, this year the world is getting ready for more elections than it has in a very long time, and some of the biggest elections from India to South Africa to, you know, the United States, et cetera, et cetera, the world is, is... We- we're in a moment of tectonic shifts, and we don't know which way the plates will move and how those plates will affect everybody on the globe. But there's a consensus. People agree that social media is a tool that is powerful enough to shift or shape how people think almost against their will or without them willingly knowing that their view is being shifted. When you talk to social media about... companies about this, they'll say, "It's not a big impact. We don't have that much of an impact, and it's also not that ba- the Russians aren't really doing much, and there isn't much at mission." But when you talk to Microsoft, you say, "No, no, it is." Why do you think there's such a difference in how you're seeing the problem between, let's say, yourself and social media companies, tech companies?
2. BSBrad Smith
  Yeah. Everybody... I'll just say most people get up in the morning and they go to work and they feel good about what they're doing. So when there's a suggestion that what they're doing is not so good, it's hard to get your mind around it.
3. TNTrevor Noah
  Oh, yeah.
4. BSBrad Smith
  I think that's, that's an easy, um, problem for any of us. I think that, you know, the concerns around social media have grown over time. In a way, it's almost startling because there was a time when people thought it was gonna be the savior of democracy. It was gonna bring information to everyone. Everyone would be a publisher. It would be the great equalizer.
5. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah.
6. BSBrad Smith
  You know, we were almost euphoric, and it, it's worth remembering that as we think about AI. You can start out being so euphoric that-
7. TNTrevor Noah
  Yes
8. BSBrad Smith
  ... you miss, uh, the dangers that technology may be creating. Um, you know, as time has gone by, especially the last two years, there's been this interesting and maybe even odd development because I see a lot of people, I meet a lot of people in government, and they say, "We are not going to make the same mistake we made with social media. We are gonna regulate AI." And I'm like, "I get that, but if we made mistakes with social media, are we gonna go fix them, or are we just gonna go to the next thing?"
9. TNTrevor Noah
  [laughs]
10. BSBrad Smith
  Because I think these issues are still very much with us. I do think that the real solution to a lot of the concerns that people have about, say, social media require bringing tech companies and governments and nonprofits together in multi-stakeholder action. We need to be willing to work with each other. And, you know, some of the debates have been bruising in recent years. It seems that, to be a little bit harder to get people into the same room.
11. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah.
12. BSBrad Smith
  And I think that's something we have to keep working to overcome.
25:23 – 28:58
Technology, Isolation and Disagreement
1. TNTrevor Noah
  Getting people in the same room seems to be, uh, an art form and an idea that is forgotten or, or maybe ignored. And ironically, we want to get people in the same room in a world where technology's keeping people in their own rooms. How do you look at that on a, on a philosophical level?
2. BSBrad Smith
  Well, I think that is a really fascinating and an important aspect of all of this. You know, there's two ways one can look at social media and, and have some concern. One is that it fans the flames of discord or, you know, unhealthy comparisons based on what people see.
3. TNTrevor Noah
  Mm-hmm.
4. BSBrad Smith
  But the second is it just leads to more time spent doing things other than interacting with other people, including in the same room. And I think both of these things have come together in a way that makes some of our challenges societally more pronounced. But the other thing that's interesting, this has been the story of technology for 100 years. The automobile connected people that were far apart. You could drive 15 miles and be with people that, frankly, before the automobile, you couldn't really go see.
5. TNTrevor Noah
  Right.
6. BSBrad Smith
  But the moment people could leave a small town, the ties within the town-
7. TNTrevor Noah
  Mm-hmm
8. BSBrad Smith
  ... started to weaken.
9. TNTrevor Noah
  Mm-hmm.
10. BSBrad Smith
  People didn't spend as much time with each other. And, you know, with each successive generation of technology, the telephone did the same thing. When I was a kid in the middle of the United States, uh, you know, in the 1970s, my m- parents would complain that, you know, my sister or brother and I were spending too much time in the evening-
11. TNTrevor Noah
  [laughs]
12. BSBrad Smith
  ... talking with friends. We had to argue over who... You could, we only one phone line.
13. TNTrevor Noah
  Right.
14. BSBrad Smith
  It was fixed. You know, but, you know, that was time that separated the family. Now, to me, the iconic image of call it life in most of the world the last 10 years is three family members sitting on a couch, each person absorbed with their own screen and their own phone. So w- we have to pull each other away from the technology to get each other in the room, uh, and counter the force of technology. But then there's a second aspect. Social media has made it so easy to find people you agree with that I think it makes it a little bit harder to get people comfortable spending time with others they disagree with.
15. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah.
16. BSBrad Smith
  And, and yet if you can't sit down with people that you disagree with, I think fundamentally your worldview gets smaller-
17. TNTrevor Noah
  Mm-hmm
18. BSBrad Smith
  ... not larger. You don't build the bridges that are needed to go solve big problems and act with great ambition. So, you know, for all my love of technology, having spent 31 years at Microsoft, I equally feel the, the limits of it, and it's why I've always been so committed to just getting people to, like, listen to each other and talk with each other, and it's okay that people may say something that's critical of you.
19. TNTrevor Noah
  Right.
20. BSBrad Smith
  Just have a little thick skin. You're gonna learn something. [paper rustling]
21. TNTrevor Noah
  Don't go anywhere, 'cause we got more What Now? after this. [paper rustling] [upbeat music]
28:58 – 33:29
The Dark Side of AI: Misuse and Widening Divides
1. TNTrevor Noah
  So let's, let's talk about AI. It's interesting to me how, like, every space I go into, everyone is, is looking at this giant orb from a different side, but the orb is there. It is floating ominously above the earth, and it is AI. So let's start with the weapon side of AI. Let's start with the, the scary side, the side that keeps you up at night. What are some of the biggest things you think we need to be looking out for as we embark on what could be, you know, by, by, by various accounts, the biggest jump in human technology in, you know, hundreds of years if not ever?
2. BSBrad Smith
  I think the two problems that I worry about the most in sort of real world, this decade kind of sense, uh, are number one, you know, people who are doing horrible things today will use AI to do them even more horribly in the future. And, and then the, the, the second is just it could, if not deployed well, end up exacerbate social divides that already exist. You think about a bully in a middle school.
3. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah.
4. BSBrad Smith
  You know, a 12-year-old. Uh, you think about people engage- trying to defraud senior citizens-
5. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah
6. BSBrad Smith
  ... of, of their money.
7. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah.
8. BSBrad Smith
  You think about people trying to impact, uh, elections and undermine democracy from within. They will and even are using AI to do all of those things. Unfortunately, what you have to be willing [laughs] and able to do is, yeah, if you wanna fight criminal activity, you gotta think like a criminal so that you can anticipate it, and then you put in place the technology both to make it harder to use legitimate tools-
9. TNTrevor Noah
  Mm-hmm
10. BSBrad Smith
  ... but fundamentally to detect it, respond, and as much as possible, defeat it. And, you know, even though the conversation in 2024 is about deepfakes in elections, you know, it's only a matter of time before y- you read a story somewhere that there's a, you know, 75-year-old grandparent who wired money, um, because they got a call and it sounded like their granddaughter was in trouble.
11. TNTrevor Noah
  Oh, yeah. I mean, we're already seeing some of those.
12. BSBrad Smith
  I think-
13. TNTrevor Noah
  I think there was one I read in Miami. There was one... Yeah, there's... You're already seeing those stories.
14. BSBrad Smith
  Yeah, and you know, and that's just so unfortunate and, but that's this dark side of human nature. So we need to, to, to, to combat all of those kinds of things.
15. TNTrevor Noah
  But is there a way to combat it? Like, uh, you know, for, for someone listening, they go, "If it, if it is a deepfake, if it's a video that looks like somebody or it's a voice that sounds like somebody, how, how do you combat that? Isn't the genie out of the bottle?"
16. BSBrad Smith
  I will always argue that there is a way to combat it, not with 100% success, not with, as a panacea. That's just not the way the world works. But if you are prepared to invest in protecting people and defending communities and countries from these kinds of abuses, you can get a lot done. And so already you have to broaden the strategy, which is why we use AI to detect AI.
17. TNTrevor Noah
  [laughs]
18. BSBrad Smith
  And, you know, and that's key. And you do a lot of public education. If you get an email from someone that you don't know, um, telling you that if you send them your bank account details they'll wire you a million dollars, most people are like, "Yeah, I, I, I've heard of this before."
19. TNTrevor Noah
  Yes. Yeah.
20. BSBrad Smith
  "I'm not doing that." And then fundamentally just continue to remember, um, just because it, it's on the internet doesn't mean it's true.
21. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah.
22. BSBrad Smith
  But then the other side of things is the, say, the s- the, the divides that it can widen.
23. TNTrevor Noah
  Mm-hmm.
24. BSBrad Smith
  And the biggest divide it can widen is just the division between technology haves and have-nots. Uh, you know, we still live in a world where there are, well, roughly three billion people that don't have access to the internet. People even, say, in a single country like the United States, where if you're underprivileged in the middle of a city or underprivileged in a rural community, you may not have access to the internet, you may not have access to a computer. Um, if you don't have access to an internet or a computer, it's gonna be hard to use AI. But it's like everything. If you worry about a problem, you're actually likely to do at least something useful to solve it.
25. TNTrevor Noah
  Right. Right.
26. BSBrad Smith
  It's when you don't think about the problem that by definition you'll do nothing to help address it.
33:29 – 35:47
AI's Upside: Healthcare, Lower Barriers and Curiosity
1. TNTrevor Noah
  When you look at the upside, it seems like, and maybe it's because I'm an optimist, it seems like the potential is, is scarily infinite, you know, in, in healthcare, in education, in equitable access to information. And it seems like AI is deflationary and it, it seems like a tool that can be diffused in a way that few technologies ever have been. Is, is this how you see it as well? And, and what, what, what have you seen that makes you most excited when you, when you look at AI?
2. BSBrad Smith
  Well, you take something like healthcare and then you have to keep in mind that there are so many people today that don't have access to a doctor.
3. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah.
4. BSBrad Smith
  You know, this is just so important in bringing, you know, many healthcare-related advances. It will ac- you know, accelerate drug discovery. Um, so I, I think that is just one of the kinds of examples where we should all be so enthusiastic.
5. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah.
6. BSBrad Smith
  I think there's a second thing which is so interesting. The barrier to entry for people in doing hard things is actually quite high, and it's true for almost everybody in at least some space. I mean, I, you know, I may be good at reading or writing, but not at math, or I can't code. Um, well, with AI you can ask for help. You can actually get to a point in the very near future where if you can conceive of it, you can ask for help to actually go do it-
7. TNTrevor Noah
  Mm-hmm
8. BSBrad Smith
  ... without having to know how to do it all yourself. And I think that's gonna be a huge, uh, you know, game changer in just making it possible for people to, to do more things. And, you know, at the end of the day, and y- you even more than me have had the opportunity to meet so many interesting, successful people in so many walks of life, in so many parts of the world, and I sometimes think to myself, "What is the trait that you see most often in people who have become hugely successful?" And I think it's curiosity.
9. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah, I agree.
10. BSBrad Smith
  And so I think AI is, is the best thing invented for curious people, and hopefully it will help other people become more curious.
35:47 – 39:06
Philosophy of AI: Making People Better, Not Replacing Them
1. TNTrevor Noah
  When you look at it philosophically beyond an a- an actual tool, AI has the opportunity to fundamentally shift, like any industrial revolution, what and how humans perceive their value, their purpose, and what they consider work, you know? And it's interesting, I... You know, when you're talking about doctors and, and medicine, et cetera, it stands to reason that AI can get to the point where it will be doing all the thinking parts of medicine, but we'll still need people to be doing the physical parts until robotics maybe gets to the point where it can also do that with more accuracy and no fatigue, et cetera. So then the question becomes on a philosophical level, as somebody who, who, who thinks quite a lot, where does that leave us?
2. BSBrad Smith
  Well, you know, I've f- For two decades, been the person who is in the senior ranks, uh, at Microsoft who sits every week with engineers but didn't get a degree in engineering or computer science myself. I came from, you know, the liberal arts side. And so philosophically, I have always, um, wanted it to be a part of something that advances technology and uses it to make people better, uh, to make humanity more successful. Um, our whole mission as a company, you know, w- it's not about technology for its own sake. It's, you know, create technology that empowers other people or organizations so they can do something that they couldn't do before.
3. TNTrevor Noah
  Mm-hmm.
4. BSBrad Smith
  That's the philosophy. I don't wanna create a future where people cannot, uh, dream new ideas-
5. TNTrevor Noah
  Yeah
6. BSBrad Smith
  ... that a machine's already thought of. I mean, a- and I'm not, I- I'm not fundamentally worried about it 'cause I just think that people who think that a machine can do everything that a person can, I think they're underestimating people, and that spark of creativity, uh, that, that people can have. Um, you know, so that's, that's, that's sort of philosophically where I will probably always be. That's the company I wanna be part of, that's creating technology that makes people better, doesn't replace people, doesn't leave people with nothing to do except go to the beach 'cause I, you know, I appreciate that it's nice to go to the beach. But, you know, when you're on day 700 of going to the beach, I just can't believe it's as much fun as on day three.
7. TNTrevor Noah
  [laughs] I think that's true for everything.
8. BSBrad Smith
  Yeah.
9. TNTrevor Noah
  I think that's true for everything. [upbeat music] Well, Brad, I could speak to you for hours. Oftentimes I do.
10. BSBrad Smith
  [laughs]
11. TNTrevor Noah
  But, uh, I, I know whenever I'm taking your time, there's a president somewhere in the world-
12. BSBrad Smith
  Yeah, yeah
13. TNTrevor Noah
  ... who's wondering- [laughs]
14. BSBrad Smith
  No, I doubt that, but-
15. TNTrevor Noah
  ... where, where you are. No, this is true. This is true. So, uh, to whichever president I've just kept you from, I apologize, but, um, thank you for spending the time with us. I appreciate the way you think. Um, I highly recommend, um, people, uh, read the book because I, I, I do think it's an even-handed, optimistic, but still cautious look at how we see the world and technology. So thank you so much again, my friend.
16. BSBrad Smith
  Okay. Thank you. [upbeat music]