Bill Gates suggested that the government could legally designate certain professions, such as childcare, as "human-exclusive positions," stating that even if AI or robots can achieve the same work capabilities, they should not be allowed to fully replace human workers.

Gates made this proposal during an interview on Radio Atlantic, a platform under The Atlantic. He noted that as model capabilities improve, deployment engineering matures, and the cost of humanoid robots decreases, the automation barriers created by insufficient system reliability will gradually disappear in the coming years; he is particularly concerned about the impact on white-collar jobs in the next two years and both blue-collar and white-collar jobs in the next four years.

He did not limit the "human-exclusive positions" to the childcare industry and did not provide a specific list of professions, legislative drafts, or enforcement standards. His core judgment is that the value of certain professions depends not only on efficiency but also on human interaction, social connections, and the meaning of work; therefore, society can choose not to allow machines to take over completely, even if they can.

Gates compared this idea to existing labor regulations: society has already banned child labor and requires certain professions to obtain professional qualifications. He advocates for retaining market price discovery and competition mechanisms but suggests defining the boundaries of automation through regulations rather than allowing companies to decide whether to replace all positions solely based on cost minimization.

In addition to job preservation, Gates proposed that the tax system should shift from primarily taxing labor to taxing capital more. He believes that under competitive pressure, companies will follow their peers to reduce labor costs; if automation replaces labor, it will shrink the wage tax base, and with the social security system already constrained by fiscal deficits, the government will lack sufficient buffer funds to address unemployment and income distribution shocks.

In market mechanisms, the replacement of labor by AI and robots will first attract buyers from companies seeking lower unit costs, round-the-clock operations, and replicable services; model, chip, cloud computing, robotics, and system integrators will receive additional budgets. Industries such as childcare, education, and care that rely on trust, accountability, and interpersonal contact may gain institutional demand protection due to the "human-exclusive" rules; low-value service providers that charge purely for replaceable tasks will face profit and pricing pressures.

Source: Public Information