EXCLUSIVE: Warren Buffett talks philanthropy, artificial intelligence
6 News sat down with the revered financier ahead of Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders meeting and weekend events.
OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - “It’s like early returns on Election Night. We’ll have a much bigger crowd this year.”
While most investors never consider attending an annual meeting for any company, Berkshire Hathaway is the outlier.
As many as 50,000 people are expected for what has been dubbed the “Woodstock for Capitalists.”
Warren Buffett says he never gets complaints afterward. Instead, the 92-year-old hears from people sharing a newfound enthusiasm for Omaha.
“How many letters do you get every day asking for money?” 6 News asked.
“They don’t stop, I’ll put it that way,” he said. “Before I did this interview, I was writing a letter explaining to people — but not only that. They ask their friends to ask you. No matter what I do, I could spend the rest of my life doing nothing but that. I want a little more time for Nebraska football.”
Warren has given away about $50 billion in his time.
“99.5% of what I have — but I’ve never given a dollar that has caused me to change my life in any way,” he said. “The person who gives $2 and who is making a normal wage is giving up more than I am. Of course, the ultimate person who is admirable is the people who volunteer their time. I can’t buy any more time than they have. They give up time.”
Even the proliferation of artificial intelligence can’t buy us more time.
“It’s sort of weird,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to tell you what stocks to buy. It can tell me every stock that meets a certain criteria, or a criteria in three seconds. But it has decided limitations in some ways. You ought to see the jokes it came up with.”
Buffett toyed around with ChatGPT when Bill Gates showed him how it worked three months ago.
“It’s very interesting,” he continued. “It can translate the Constitution into Spanish in one second. But the computer could not tell jokes. You could tell it to make a joke about Warren and crypto. It’s read every book and seen all TV, but it couldn’t do that. I told Bill to bring it back when I can ask it, ‘How are you going to get rid of the human race?’. I want to see what it says — and pull the plug out before it does it.”
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BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY WEEKEND
Friday is shareholder shopping day, then Saturday is the big Berkshire question-and-answer sessions with Buffett and others at the CHI Health Center. That begins at 9:15 a.m. CNBC will livestream that portion of the meeting.
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