Bill Gates on Governments should tax capital, not lab…

Bill Gates

Philanthropist. Founder and former CEO of Microsoft.

I believe we should tax AI tokens and robots. [...] The tax system nudges you toward replacing people with machines.

AI Verified (Aug 26, 2026)

Source:

Bill Gates, “The turbulent AI era is here. The choices we make now are critical,” Gates Notes, August 26, 2026.

1mo ago

Policy proposals and claims

Governments should tax capital, not labor, as AI makes human work less central to the economy

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AI Verified The quote directly supports shifting taxation toward AI/robots as labor is replaced, making the stated capital-not-labor tax policy substantially more likely. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5.6 · 1mo ago

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AI Verified Correct answer: for. Gates explicitly proposes taxing AI tokens and robots because the tax system favors replacing workers with machines. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5.6 · 1mo ago

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AI Verified Gates Notes (26 Aug 2026) contains this wording: “tax AI tokens and robots” and explains payroll-tax incentives to replace workers with machines. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5.6 · 1mo ago

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AI labs should give independent evaluators employee-like access

I agree with Dario and am glad to see the support from leaders of the other frontier labs. The world needs a plan, developed in a global, public process. If we can slow down the growth of AI, we'll have more time to ensure the benefits outweigh the h...

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AI will create a permanent underclass

Market forces will make adoption go faster and faster and, unless we intervene, there will be fewer good jobs available and the benefits will accrue to a small group.

AI Verified source (Aug 26, 2026)

added 1mo ago

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Establish a UN-led body to oversee compute-intensive AI

But even a country that gets its own house in order will still be exposed to risks that cross borders. This is why an international organization will need to be built in parallel. […] A new global organization for AI will need elements of all three a...

more AI Verified source (Aug 26, 2026)

added 1mo ago