Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates published a nearly 6,000-word essay on his website about how to respond to the AI era - his first systematic take on AI in three years and his first time saying he wishes AI would slow down. He worries many jobs will permanently disappear, with customer service and sales among the first affected, and construction and hospitality largely turning to robots around 2030. He proposes two measures: first, reserving empathy-heavy roles such as healthcare, education and elderly care for humans, reportedly discussing keeping 40% of jobs human-only; second, taxing robot use and AI tokens, arguing that today companies pay payroll taxes for employees but can deduct robot purchases, so the tax code effectively encourages replacing workers with machines - revenue that could fund retraining and social security. Anthropic and OpenAI have also called for similar tax reform. Gates admits these measures cost some efficiency, but believes AI's productivity gains are large enough that society can afford a little inefficiency to avoid leaving people behind.
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Bill Gates on AI: proposes token and robot taxes, reserving jobs for humans
Bill Gates published a nearly 6,000-word essay on his website laying out the risks of AI and possible policy responses - his first systematic statement on AI in three years. He warns that many white- and blue-collar jobs will permanently disappear, proposes designating empathy-heavy fields such as healthcare, education and elderly care as human-reserved, and suggests taxing AI token usage and robots on the grounds that the current tax code subsidizes automation over hiring. Anthropic and OpenAI have also called for similar tax reforms, sparking broad debate over AI taxation and labor policy.
2026-09-03