The advancements towards artificial intelligence has created an increase in adoption for robots in the workforce. These growing developments are obviously making great strides in production and efficiency for their respective industries, however at the cost of human employment.
According to an article by Neowin, it has been reported that $15 trillion in wages that would naturally go to human workers could eventually be cut out by robots. But Bill Gates has a thought that might be worth exploring.
In an interview with the Quartz editor-in-chief, Gates explained that he thought robots should be taxed. “If a robot comes to do the same thing, you’d think we’d tax the robot at a similar level,” he stated. The former CEO of Microsoft believes that robots would be extremely efficient in labor industries whereas the use of human empathy and understanding would have the opportunity for more interpersonal employment.
“If you can take the labor that used to do the thing automation replaces and both financially, and training, and fulfillment–wise, have that person go off and do these other things, you’re net ahead. But you can’t just give up that income tax because that’s part of how you’ve been finding that level of human workers.”
Gates argues that even if the money comes from the savings or an all out ‘robot tax’, he believes that it’s important to the economy to ensure a richer society as a whole with smaller class sizes.
