Industry Odisha Bureau, Aug 27: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has warned that the world needs to prepare for the rapid disruption artificial intelligence could bring, particularly to jobs and the workforce.
In a recent blog post, Gates described the transition into the AI era as a turbulent period and highlighted job displacement and growing digital threats as major concerns.
Gates said AI could affect employment across sectors including law, customer service, medicine, software development and manufacturing. He believes the impact could be felt within a decade, rather than over several generations.
He is particularly concerned about entry level jobs and young workers, who could face fewer opportunities to enter the workforce and gain experience as companies adopt AI tools.
The impact may also extend beyond white-collar jobs. Bill Gates expects AI-powered robots to compete with humans in certain physical tasks. These might include construction, hospitality and could happen by the end of the decade.
Gates also warned that AI could make fraud, deepfakes, misinformation and cyberattacks more sophisticated. He cautioned that governments and other bad actors could potentially misuse increasingly powerful AI systems.
However, Gates does not believe AI development should be stopped. Instead, he has called for governments to prepare policies covering jobs, education, healthcare, taxation, energy and national security.
He has also proposed his “Human Reserved” concept. This would preserve certain roles requiring empathy and human connection for people. Gates has additionally suggested taxing AI tokens and robots to fund worker retraining support those affected by automation.
