Bill Gates says AI could reduce jobs more than past tech shifts

In short: Bill Gates says the usual idea that new technology creates enough new jobs may not hold if AI and robots get cheap and reliable enough.

What's going on

Bill Gates made the case on The Ezra Klein Show, in a New York Times video segment, that AI could eventually do many kinds of work for far less money than a person. He says that, once these systems are dependable, workers may not have a clear set of tasks that stay protected because humans are better value.

Gates also noted that, so far, AI has created more jobs than it has destroyed. He pointed to the current boom in building data centers, which are large buildings full of computers that run AI (like power plants for computing). He said computer coding is one area where AI has already become reliable enough to change how work gets done, and he expects more pressure on accounting, legal work, telesales, and customer support.

He has floated policy ideas like taxing AI systems or robots in a way similar to payroll taxes on human workers. He has also suggested keeping some roles, such as child care and elder care, as jobs done by people.

At the same time, research groups say the picture today is more mixed than a simple jobs collapse. The International Labour Organization says AI is mostly changing tasks inside jobs, not wiping out whole jobs at large scale. The International Monetary Fund says the impact may be uneven, with some workers benefiting while others, especially in middle-skill roles exposed to AI, could be squeezed.

What to watch

The key question is whether AI becomes good enough and widely used enough that job losses happen faster than new kinds of work appear. It will also depend on choices by employers and on government responses like training programs and safety nets.

Source: NYTimes