Bill Gates: AI will transform tech as much as keyboard and mouse | Tech Moves 

Bill Gates at his desk in Microsoft's heyday. (From "Inside Bill's Brain," Netflix, 2019.)

One of the pivotal figures in the rise of the graphical user interface says he sees a similar revolution in the new age of artificial intelligence.

• In a post published Tuesday morning, Bill Gates writes that he challenged OpenAI last year to develop an AI model that could pass the Advanced Placement biology exam without being specifically trained for the questions on the test. He believed that the critical thinking required to pass the test would qualify as a clear breakthrough in the field.

• "I thought the challenge would keep them busy for two or three years,” writes the Microsoft co-founder and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-chair. “They finished it in just a few months.”

• "The whole experience was stunning,” Gates writes. “I knew I had just seen the most important advance in technology since the graphical user interface. … Soon the pre-AI period will seem as distant as the days when using a computer meant typing at a C:> prompt rather than tapping on a screen.” Read more. 

Hundreds of Seattle-area high school students learned how to discern fact from fiction at the University of Washington’s 2023 MisinfoDay.

• The event helped students assess content amid a continued deluge of misinformation on the internet and popular social media platforms such as TikTok. Read more. 

In the latest tech industry layoffs, Expedia made an undisclosed amount of job cuts.

• The Seattle travel giant described the layoffs as “strategic actions.” Read more. 

• Amazon on Monday said it would cut another 9,000 jobs, in addition to an 18,000-person layoff announced in January. Read more.

Tech Moves:

• Appen hires former Upwork CTO; DocuSign hires a former Amazon GM; Seattle startup Gennev adds new execs; and more key personnel changes. 

Ex-Salesforce leaders teamed up to launch Oleria, an enterprise access management platform to protect sensitive data and reduce workflow frictions. 

• The Seattle startup is led by Jim Alkove, the former chief trust officer at Salesforce. The company announced a $8 million seed investment round. Read more. 

Tracking-device maker Pebblebee teamed with a ski company to embed its technology in skis to help locate gear that goes missing.

• Seattle-based Pebblebee and Montana-based Peak have developed Peak Lôc8, which works with a mobile app to track down lost skis. Read more.