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Dive Brief:
Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and philanthropist, wants to tax artificial intelligence tokens and robots to slow and address the replacement of human labor with advanced systems and machines, he said in a blog post Wednesday.
Under the current U.S. tax system, employers hire people and pay payroll taxes on their earnings. Gates argued that with robots, they can simply write the equipment off as a business expense, which “nudges” companies toward replacing people with machines.
The International Federation of Robotics has argued that Gates’ idea of a robot tax aims to “solve a problem that does not exist,” saying that automation and use of robots creates new jobs by increasing productivity. Gates also recommended creating a domestic and international framework for dealing with AI and intentionally setting aside jobs for humans.
