Mumbai: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has a new idea for the AI age: keep some jobs strictly human. Even if machines can eventually do them faster or cheaper, Gates says governments may need to protect parts of the workforce, warning that the incoming wave of automation could permanently shrink the human workforce.
Gates made the proposal in a lengthy essay published Wednesday on his Gates Notes website titled, “The turbulent AI Era is here. The choices we make now are critical,” where he laid out what he calls a “Human Reserved” domain.
His argument starts from a stark prediction — “Many jobs will disappear forever.”
Unlike earlier technological revolutions, Gates says AI can substitute for human cognition itself. It could rapidly take on work in law, customer service, medicine, software and manufacturing, while increasingly capable robots could compete for construction, hospitality and other physical jobs by the end of the decade.
In a Reuters interview, Gates put the difference more sharply.
“Yes, in the past, technology never did this. This time is different,” he said.
He described AI as an “evolutionary milestone” requiring extensive policy intervention.
“We need time to prepare for the social, political, and economic upheaval,” he wrote in his essay.
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A ‘Human Reserved’ proposal
Gates’ ‘Human Reserved’ proposal is one possible intervention.
He said some work should remain with people because replacing workers would cause severe economic disruption, while other jobs have a human quality that technology should not replace. He pointed to the caregivers of his father, who died of Alzheimer’s disease in 2020.
“Something in the care they gave my dad was irreplaceably human. No robot could or should have done it,” he wrote.
As AI and robots improve, Gates said societies may therefore consciously decide that certain tasks remain human.
“I’ve started calling this domain Human Reserved, and it’s an example of the kinds of ideas we’ll need to consider,” he said.
The name, he explained, is inspired by nature reserves — places society could develop but deliberately chooses to preserve because what would be lost matters more. That does not mean freezing every vulnerable occupation in place.
Gates suggested Human Reserved could include temporary protections that phase in automation slowly, as well as permanent limits where human presence matters. Education and mental-health care, for instance, could become hybrid sectors where AI assists but a person remains in charge. Different countries could make different choices depending on their labour needs.
“For example, we may do it because allowing machines to take over a certain role will displace a large number of people who can’t easily change jobs,” he wrote. “You can’t tell a 55-year-old who has worked in construction their whole career that they need to go work at an elder care facility and expect them to find it fulfilling.”
Gates also wants governments to alter the financial incentive to replace workers by taxing AI tokens and robots, with the revenue helping fund retraining and stronger social safety nets.
“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,” he wrote. “The tax system nudges you toward replacing people with machines.”
Gates is also taking his AI concerns to governments.
He told Reuters that he is seeking a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this year to discuss international safeguards around advanced AI, including restrictions on particularly dangerous models and monitoring systems that could enable biological attacks. He says China could support such limits if the US moved first.
“President Xi might be surprised by how vehement I am,” Gates said.
His warning to policymakers was less abstract. Asked about protests over AI data centres, Gates said, “Wait until you really screw up the job market.”
(Edited by Stela Dey)