Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on hoverboards, Apple’s stoush with the FBI and his lunch menu

BILL Gates has revealed the one thing that terrifies him and keeps him awake at night. Oh, and what billionaires eat for lunch.

WHAT keeps the world’s richest man awake at night?

Both the weighty and the mundane, multi-billionaire Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates has revealed in his fourth Reddit AMA (ask me anything) session.

Concerns about bioterrorism, global warming and poverty weigh on Gates’ mind, while his habit of finishing every book he starts keeps him up late into the night.

But what one Redditer really wanted to know centred on Western civilisation’s greatest current obsession: food.

After asking what problem or challenge made Gates feel powerless (answer: the prospect of terrorists carrying out biological warfare), TheSlitheringSerpent wrote: “Now for a less serious question: sushi or Thai food?”

“I love both sushi and Thai food,” Gates replied.

“Since I like them better than my family does I have them for lunch a lot.”

He was equally good-humoured when a diehard nineties video game aficionado asked: “Mr Gates, can we please have another Age of Empires?”

He replied: “I will look into this. How many empires do you need?”

Gates, who Forbes last year reported was worth $106.8 billion ($US79.2 billion), also revealed that he is frugal when it comes to shopping for clothes and jewellery — except when buying a gift for his wife.

“I think people’s spending instincts are set when they are in high school,” he said.

Speaking of high school, as his Reddit proof of identity Gates chose to recreate his 1973 yearbook photo, in which he is pictured laying back on a desk while taking a call.

This is Bill Gates speaking.

Back to the bioterrorism: Gates is seriously concerned about the potential for a small group of terrorists to “use nuclear or biological means to kill millions”.

“If Government does their best work they have a good chance of detecting it and stopping it, but I don’t think it is getting enough attention,” he said.

He also noted that technological tools can be used for both good and evil.

“Some people think hoverboards were bad because they caught on fire. I never got to try one,” Gates said, apparently in reference to the long list of self-balancing scooter models that have been recalled due to safety issues.

He was also concerned about the need to regulate artificial intelligence, as “when a few people control a platform with extreme intelligence, it creates dangers in terms of power and eventually control.”

Asked why he didn’t run for president, Gates replied that he enjoys running a philanthropic organisation too much.

“Also, I wouldn’t be good at doing what you need to do to get elected,” Gates said.

“I thought Michael Bloomberg was thoughtful about why it didn’t make sense for him to try and run even though he is a great executive.”

He said that while he “didn’t believe in vacation” in his younger years, he had “mellowed” and now took regular holidays.

APPLE VS FBI

Gates had some words of advice for Apple in relation to its legal stoush with the FBI, refused access to a terrorist’s encrypted mobile phone.

“I think there needs to be a discussion about when the government should be able to gather information,” Gates said.

“What if we had never had wire-tapping?”

He said laws needed to be “modernised” to make clear how government agencies and corporations should be working together to fight terrorism while balancing privacy concerns.

“Right now a lot of people don’t think the government has the right checks to make sure information is only used in criminal situations,” Gates said.

“So this case will be viewed as the start of a discussion. I think very few people take the extreme view that the government should be blind to financial and communication data, but very few people think giving the government carte blanche without safeguards makes sense ... Maybe they [Apple] could propose an overall plan for striking the balance between government being able to know things in some cases, and having safeguards to make sure those powers are confined to appropriate cases.”

Gates also directed Redditers to his foundation’s 2016 annual letter, which focuses on the need to bring electricity to developing nations to help alleviate global poverty.

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Originally published as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on hoverboards, Apple’s stoush with the FBI and his lunch menu