Workers are concerned that they’ll lose their jobs to AI—and Bill Gates thinks they are right to worry. He has identified a loophole which may be incentivizing businesses to shift away from human capital to robots.
Last week, Pew Research released a study finding that 71% of adults think AI will lead to fewer jobs in the United States over the next two decades, up from 64% in 2024—only 5% think it will lead to more jobs. And young people, those whose job prospects are most likely to be impacted over the long run, are equally as concerned as their older counterparts: 73% believe they’ll get fewer career opportunities because of the transformative technology over the next 20 years.
Despite the concerns of the public, and the watchful eye of policymakers like former Fed chairman Jerome Powell, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has suggested that employers’ bottom lines, under current tax frameworks, may actually benefit from using AI-empowered machines rather than human workers.
In a new essay posted to his blog, the entrepreneur and philanthropist wrote: “Right now, if you’re an employer and you hire someone, you pay payroll taxes on their earnings. But if you buy a robot, you can usually write it off right away as a business expense. The tax system nudges you toward replacing people with machines.”
