In a recent episode of his podcast “Unconfuse Me With Bill Gates,” the Microsoft founder offered the prediction that AI would have a clear role to play in fighting climate change. This could include genetically modifying cows to produce less methane or to produce “meat without the cow.” Gates was speaking to Hannah Ritchie, a data scientist and researcher at the University of Oxford, when he made the bold prediction about AI’s potential role in fighting climate change.

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Ritchie sounded a less optimistic note about the future of food technology, pointing to the difficulties currently being faced by advocates of plant-based diets as they try to convince others to change their food-consumption habits.

A few years ago, a study from Australia showed that 73% of men would rather lose ten years of their lives than give up meat. Manufacturers of plant-based “meats” like Beyond and Impossible continue to suffer drastic setbacks in their aim to replace traditional meat products, as sales continue to fall.

The hype behind so-called “lab-grown meat” has also largely evaporated. A recent New York Times opinion piece called it “the revolution that died on its way to dinner.”

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Despite these difficulties, Gates expressed his hope for real change, and his role in driving it.

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