Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has proposed designating some jobs exclusively for humans and introducing taxes on AI and robots to ease the impact of artificial intelligence on the labour market.
In a lengthy essay published on his Gates Notes website, Gates said societies should create a category of “Human Reserved” work that machines should not perform, even if they become capable of doing so.
Drawing on the experience of caring for his father, who died of Alzheimer’s disease in 2020, Gates wrote: “Something in the care they gave my dad was irreplaceably human. No robot could or should have done it.”
He compared the concept to nature reserves, places society deliberately leaves untouched despite the technical possibility of development.
“I believe that as AI and robots improve, we’ll set aside certain things for only people to do. I’ve started calling this domain Human Reserved,” he said.
Gates suggested such protections could apply for economic reasons, particularly to avoid displacing large numbers of workers who would struggle to change careers, as well as for ethical reasons in areas such as delivering bad medical news.
He also renewed his call for a tax on AI tokens and robots, arguing that current tax systems favour automation.
“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,” he wrote.
“A tax would slow the rush away from human labor a little and raise money for retraining and a stronger safety net.”
Gates urged governments to act before unemployment rises sharply and public trust erodes, stressing the need for broad public debate on how to manage the transition.
