'Better to pay for vaccines than try to go to Mars', says Bill Gates

American billionaire Bill Gates said he would rather use his money to fund vaccines than to travel to Mars – which, for him, is not a good use of money.

"Going to Mars is too expensive. You can buy measles vaccines and save lives for $1,000 for every life saved," he told the BBC.

"And then [it] kind of makes you conclude — don't go to Mars."

Other famous billionaires have invested their fortunes in space projects. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and Space X, has said he wants to colonize Mars and Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon, has also been building rockets.

Bezos, the founder of Amazon, owns the aerospace company Blue Origin. He himself made a short trip to space in 2021. British tycoon Richard Branson also traveled to space in his Virgin Galactic rocket plane.

Gates, who is a co-founder of Microsoft, also believes that artificial intelligence will transform humanity "quite dramatically".

He said: "It will help us look at medical and scientific questions. It's not just robots. Technology is helping reading and writing too."

"Actually, there's been more progress in that area than on the robotics side. Both sides will give us much higher productivity."

'Bogeyman'

Gates also spoke about his surprise at becoming the protagonist of several conspiracy theories during the covid pandemic.

"I wasn't expecting that," he said, referring to theories that he profited from vaccines or even created the virus.

“During the pandemic, there have been tens of millions of messages being spread that I intentionally caused the virus or that I am screening people with vaccines. It's true that I'm involved in vaccines, but my involvement is in life-saving vaccines."

"These messages kind of flipped that around. I think people are looking for a 'bogeyman' behind the story or some simplistic explanation. Malevolence is much easier to understand than biology."

Gates also spoke about how he met sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

"Today I'm certainly more careful than when I did that. I'm more careful. I might make a mistake again. I walk around in the world and try not to be a recluse."

'By my grandmother's standards, I'm crazy'

Gates, who spent much of his life being the richest person in the world, has donated tens of billions of dollars to philanthropic causes, often focusing on global health, especially children.

He now divides his time between tackling climate change, malnutrition and diseases such as polio and malaria.

On being frugal in his private life, Gates said: "I don't have a huge wardrobe. I don't wear jewelry. When I'm opening a present, I don't save the wrapping paper to use again. My grandmother never threw away a single one. a paper bag or string all my life. So, by her standards, I'm crazy."

Gates was divorced from his wife, Melinda, in May 2021. When asked if he'd like to fall in love again, he said, "Of course, I'm not a robot."