Bill Gates proposes robot tax and Human Reserved jobs to address AI job displacement

Bill Gates has proposed a robot tax and the creation of "Human Reserved" jobs to address the potential displacement of workers by artificial intelligence, outlining his ideas in a lengthy essay published on his Gates Notes blog on August 26, 2026. The Microsoft co-founder argued that the current tax system incentivizes companies to replace human employees with machines and called for policy interventions to manage the transition. In his essay, Gates highlighted a disparity in how companies are taxed. He noted that when a business hires a person, it pays payroll taxes, but when it purchases a robot or AI system, the cost can often be written off as a business expense.