Bill Gates calls for robot and AI taxes to blunt AI Job losses

The billionaire and Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates, has backed ongoing calls for a robot tax and also proposed that certain jobs be set aside as “Human Reserved.”

In a new essay on his Gates Notes blog, he argues that the proposals are meant to help workers who may lose jobs to AI in the next decade. 

Gates says this is important now because more people are worried about automation, and he is confident that AI will hurt employment.

The tax loophole Bill Gates says favors machines

Bill Gates pointed out a problem with how companies are taxed. When a company hires a person, it pays payroll taxes. But if it buys a robot, the cost can often be written off right away as a business expense. 

According to him, that difference means “the tax system nudges you toward replacing people with machines.”

He argues that direct taxes on AI tokens and robots preserve human jobs while generating government revenue. As automation reduces the workforce, income tax revenues fall while social security and retraining costs rise.

However, Gates stresses that these taxes must be targeted so they don’t hinder beneficial AI applications, such as lowering costs in education and healthcare.

What a ‘Human Reserved’ job would mean

Gates’ second proposal is to keep some jobs for people, even if machines could do them. 

Some jobs would always be for humans, according to him. He mentioned a few, including childcare and jury service, as examples of work that people do better.

In medicine, Gates says a machine could give a terminal diagnosis, but it should not. He suggests that in education and healthcare, some tasks should stay with people, but AI should not be banned completely from these fields.

Gates says his plan would protect up to 40% of jobs, which he says is “as high as I can get.” That somewhat suggests the rest of the jobs could be open to change by the AI and robots.

In other news, the impact of AI on jobs is already being felt across industries worldwide. Earlier this year, Cryptopolitan cited a Morgan Stanley report showing that British companies are shedding more jobs than they’re creating due to artificial intelligence. 

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