William Henry Gates, co-founder of Microsoft; Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, co-founder of social networking site Facebook; and Christopher Isaac ‘Biz’ Stone, co-founder of Twitter, all built their empire on advances in technology.
Yet all three acknowledge that humanity will always reign supreme.
Invited to speak recently at Oxford University, Stone emphasized that technology should be used to “amplify the best traits of humanity.”
Stone and his wife Livia are founders of the Biz and Livia Stone Foundation.
It is involved in, among others, health, education, animal welfare and poverty reduction. Gates, meanwhile, said in a 2013 interview with Financial Times that “while technology is amazing, it does not go down to the people most in need.”
Thus in 2000, Bill and Melinda Gates launched the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation’s vision is to globally enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty.
In June 2006, Gates began to work full time at BMGF.
In one interview, Gates said: “Money has no utility to me beyond a certain point. Its utility is entirely in building an organization and getting the resources out to the poorest in the world.”
As of Oct. 2014, Bill and Melinda Gates have donated $30.2 billion—almost 37 percent of their wealth—to various charitable causes.
The Zuckerbergs are involved in similar fields.
Following the birth of his daughter, Maxima Chan Zuckerberg, on Dec. 1, 2015, Mark and Priscilla Chan Zuckerberg announced the creation of the Chan Zuckerberg initiative (CZI).
The CZI on Sept. 21, 2016 announced a commitment to invest $3 billion over the next decade in disease prevention. The CZI seeded $600 million in a new research facility called the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub in San Francisco.
The objective is to develop tools to treat the world’s biggest killers, namely heart disease, cancer, infectious diseases and neurological diseases.
In a video explaining the CZI initiative, Zuckerberg said in reference to his child Max, “Having this child has made us think about all of the things that should be improved in the world for her whole generation. The only way that we can reach our full human potential is if we are able to unlock the gifts of every person around the world.”
Technology, no matter how powerful it seems, is merely a tool.
Whether it does good or evil depends on how companies and individuals use it. Hopefully, more will use it for good. -Contributed