Watch: How Bill Gates explained the Internet to David Letterman in 1995

It was a laughter riot when Bill Gates appeared on the Late Show With David Letterman back in 1995 and his attempt to explain the Internet to the host and audience left everyone in splits. Though it has become an indispensable part of our lives these days, the Internet was still in the early stage of growth then and only a few people were aware of the new and rising phenomenon.

So, when David Letterman asked Gates about the Internet, it led to a string of funny questions and answers to everyone's amusement. At one point during the conversation, Letterman asked "It’s wild what’s going on" as he further probed Bill Gates what the hell the internet is, the Microsoft co-founder said, “A place where people can publish information. They can have their own homepage, companies are there, and the latest information."

As the discussion progressed, Letterman looked a bit sceptical about the usage of the Internet and talked about getting to hear a baseball match commentary on his computer via Internet.


"I heard you could watch a live baseball game on the internet and I was like, does radio ring a bell?" Letterman asked.

Gates replied that unlike with radio, the Internet would allow people to watch a baseball game whenever they wanted instead of live.

Here's the video:



Gates further explained, "You can find other people who have the same usual interests as you do [on the Internet]."

Interestingly, Gates also talked about Artificial Intelligence and how computers might come to "think" on their own. "That turns out to be a very tough problem," Gates said. "In fact, there has been almost no progress made on it, so no one knows what will happen. Some people think it will never happen."

This old video has received some interesting reactions from netizens: