Aside from safety and privacy, job security is a major concern among most people as generative AI advances and scales greater heights. Over the past few years, the technology has rapidly gained popularity among organizations, which have either integrated it into their workflows to boost productivity or used it to replace workers altogether.
Although many reports warn that the world may be in an AI bubble poised to burst, leading labs such as Google, OpenAI, and Microsoft are still pouring billions into the technology. There have also been reports that the technology has hit a wall due to a lack of high-quality content for training. This is on top of an exorbitant demand for electricity, computing power, and cooling water.
Prior to OpenAI's (arguably) lackluster GPT-5 launch, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates had predicted that OpenAI's GPT technology had plateaued. He has also claimed that AI will replace humans for most things, save for activities like baseball, which are better off exclusively preserved for humans.
AI's impact on the job market has raised concern among the youth and professionals, especially after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei claimed that the technology may slash up to 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs.
But perhaps more interestingly, Bill Gates shared a unique perspective on an AI-powered world where technology displaces human jobs. In a 2017 interview with Quartz, the philanthropic billionaire suggested introducing a 'robot tax' if AI and robotics eventually replace human workers.
Right now, the human worker who does, say, $50,000 worth of work in a factory, that income is taxed, and you get income tax, social security tax, all those things. If a robot comes in to do the same thing, you’d think that we’d tax the robot at a similar level.
Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates.
“You ought to be willing to raise the tax level and even slow down the speed,” Gates added. The executive indicated that automation is taking place rapidly, creating an urgent need to have elaborate measures to manage the displacement of humans at work. “You cross the threshold of job replacement of certain activities all sort of at once”.
Interestingly, Gates claimed that driving and warehouse work would be among the first jobs on AI's chopping block. However, the executive proposes that the government should intervene in such a scenario by amping up social services for the elderly and physically impaired population. He also suggested that more labor should be channeled to the education sector.
