Bill Gates proposes 'Human Reserved' jobs, protected from AI even when machines could do them better

[IvoryOttie]

Bill Gates published a 6,000 word essay this week titled The Turbulent AI Era Is Here, his first lengthy piece on AI in three years, proposing that societies deliberately set aside certain jobs exclusively for humans even once AI and robots become capable of doing them. Gates calls the concept Human Reserved, drawing a direct comparison to nature reserves, places where roads and buildings could technically be built but where a society chooses not to build them because the loss would simply be too great.

Gates named childcare and jury service as roles he considers clearly better suited to humans regardless of AI capability, while describing education and healthcare as more of a mixed case, fields where you wouldn't want to completely ban AI but where protected human roles could still exist alongside it, with workers using AI tools to extend their own output rather than being replaced by them outright. He connected the argument to his own father's care during his battle with Alzheimer's, pointing specifically to the health professionals who cared for him as an example of work whose human element carries value technology simply can't replace.

The proposal comes in two distinct forms according to Gates, some roles staying permanently human only, and others receiving temporary protection specifically for workers too far into their careers to realistically retrain into something else. He put a rough ceiling on the whole idea at around 40 percent of jobs in its most extreme form, admitting that even reaching that number proved harder to justify than he initially expected, and that he couldn't push the estimate meaningfully higher no matter how he approached the calculation.

Gates paired the Human Reserved concept with a call to tax AI usage and robots directly, arguing the current tax system nudges companies toward replacing workers with machines by taxing labor considerably more heavily than capital. He described this as potentially the largest change to the tax system in his lifetime, acknowledging the proposal arrives at an unusually polarized political moment. Gates also warned that governments broadly aren't prepared for the sheer scale of AI's coming impact, arguing it will touch nearly every area of policy and require a government response larger than the institutional changes that followed the September 11 terrorist attacks, while remaining candid that he'd stake his own reputation on AI proving very bad for employment overall

Bill Gates calls for 'human-reserved' jobs in face of AI takeoverwww.theguardian.com