Technology is
"amazing," Bill Gates
told the Financial
Times in a recent
interview, but it's not
going to save the
world.

Speaking with the
Times' Richard Waters
about what it's going
to take the make the
planet a better place,
the Microsoft co-
founder said that
though improvements
in technology may
have their benefits,
they won't meet the
needs of the world's
most desperate.

"I certainly love the IT
thing," Gates said. "But
when we want to
improve lives, you've
got to deal with more
basic things like child
survival, child
nutrition."

"PCs are not, in the
hierarchy of human
needs, in the first five
rungs,” he later added.
Gates' comments come
just a few months
after Facebook co-
founder Mark
Zuckerberg and a
group of other tech
moguls -- positioning
Internet connectivity
as a humanitarian
concern -- promised to
bring Internet access
to the entire world.

"The Internet is an
important foundation
in improving the
world," Zuckerberg
told Wired in August
of the plan.

When asked by the
Financial Times
whether Internet
connectivity is more
important than, say,
finding a vaccination
for malaria, Gates
responded: "As a
priority? It's a joke."

"If you think
connectivity is the key
thing, that’s great. I
don’t,” he added.

(Go to the Financial
Times to read the full
interview with Bill
Gates.)

Gates has been a vocal
advocate for malaria
research for years. As
co-chair of the Bill &
Melinda Gates
Foundation, the 58-
year-old philanthropist
has put billions of
dollars into improving
healthcare and
fighting poverty in
developing countries.

A major part of the
foundation's work has
focused on tackling
infectious diseases like
malaria, HIV and
polio.

"The malaria parasite
has been killing
children and sapping
the strength of whole
populations for tens of
thousands of years,"
Gates wrote in a blog
post for The
Huffington Post in
2011. "It is impossible
to calculate the harm
malaria has done to
the world. But we
have the ability to
make generation after
generation of better
tools, and we can
chart a course to end
malaria."