Bill Gates warns 'there is no plan' for AI upheaval, urges new global bodies

Gates wrote that the technology could displace workers across the economy, squeeze entry-level hiring and force policymakers to rethink employment, education and the social safety net. White-collar work was already being affected, with sales, customer support, software engineering and paralegal work among the likely first areas hit, he added. Blue-collar workers will also face pressure as increasingly capable robots become cheaper, while younger people risk entering a labor market with fewer openings.

“The people who need the most time are the ones who have the least — the accounting worker who’s replaced by a bot or the $20-an-hour worker who loses their job to a $10-an-hour robot,” Gates wrote. He said competition could accelerate adoption as companies use AI and robotics to cut costs, and that “robots and AI combined can create a vicious cycle.”

Gates called for new national bodies to coordinate policy across employment, taxation, energy, elections, public health, the financial system and national security, and for a new international organization to address cross-border risks. He said such agencies could draw on existing models such as nuclear weapons inspections, international aviation regulations and agreements protecting the ozone layer.

The essay reflects a shift from Gates’s earlier comments. He told CNBC in October that AI was “the biggest technical thing ever in my lifetime” and that its influence was hard to overstate. In the new essay, he acknowledged his financial ties to the tech industry but argued that AI can also accelerate innovation in clean energy, climate change, food production and disease eradication. Even under the best circumstances, he wrote, the transition to the new AI era will be “one of the most turbulent times in human history.”