Bill Gates says society must decide how to tax AI and protect human jobs

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has warned that AI will transform the world more profoundly than previous technologies, forcing societies to decide how to tax AI usage and which jobs should remain reserved for humans. He highlighted concerns over AI-driven job displacement, cybersecurity risks, and the need for government regulation.

Washington:  Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on Sunday said society would soon have to decide how to tax Artificial Intelligence (AI) and which jobs to reserve for humans, warning that AI “changes the world more than all previous technologies” as fears grow over its impact on employment.

Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, Gates was asked by host Jake Tapper about his earlier warning that the breadth of AI job losses across virtually all sectors would be “unprecedented”, and his call to reserve some occupations in education and health care for humans.

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Gates said he was looking at “how fast these models are improving and what the incentive is to use the AI in place of human labor”.

“In the years ahead, we really do need to make a decision as a society, how do we tax AI usage or robot usage? And where do we want to make sure the human jobs are preserved?” he said.

“Until people get their mind around how powerful this is, and, therefore, what it’s going to be doing to these jobs, the idea that you need to reserve things for humans may sound bizarre, but, in fact, we will get there,” he added.

Gates, who helped build the personal computer and internet era, said those were “a big deal, but nothing compared to this”.

He said the most immediate danger was “bad people using AI”, particularly for cyberattacks, and predicted that “over the next year, we will move beyond self-governance” by AI companies, with government safety bodies like those for aviation and medicines.

Gates said he had heard from “a number of politicians” and hoped “in time” to discuss his concerns with Trump and “his key people”.

But his warning comes as India’s technology industry, whose professionals receive the bulk of US H-1B visas, faces both AI-driven change in its business and tightening US immigration rules.

Nasscom said hiring was expected “to shift from volume to skill mix, reflecting greater AI-driven productivity gains passed through to clients”.

“AI is accelerating productivity and changing the nature of work, but it is also expanding the opportunity frontier,” Nasscom chairperson Sindhu Gangadharan said in February, according to The Hindu BusinessLine.

In Washington, the pressure on Indian IT firms is coming from policy as well.

On Thursday, Labour Secretary Keith Sonderling suspended eight companies, including Infosys, Tata, Wipro and HCL, from the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) programme, a key step in employer-sponsored green cards, citing ongoing investigations.

Vice President JD Vance warned at a campaign rally in Ohio last week that companies replacing American workers with legal immigrants could face “a big fat tariff”.

The administration’s $100,000 fee on certain new H-1B petitions has been blocked by two federal judges.

The H-1B programme allows US employers to temporarily hire foreign workers in speciality occupations. US Citizenship and Immigration Services data show that 71 per cent of approved H-1B petitions in fiscal 2024 were for beneficiaries born in India.

PERM is the labour certification step through which many employers sponsor foreign workers for permanent residence.