In 2017, Microsoft founder Bill Gates proposed introducing a “robot tax” that would temporarily slow the pace of automation and whose revenue could be used to “finance jobs taking care of elderly people or working with kids in schools, for which needs are unmet and to which humans are particularly well suited”. Since then, many researchers all over the world have weighed in on the idea, publishing proposals and findings on how such a tax might work in reality.
What gave rise to this novel proposal? The first factor was a growing sense of alarm that the development of robots and artificial intelligence could seriously alter our economy and society in the years to come. Indeed, some such changes are already unfolding. As technology develops, robots and AI may even be able to perform jobs that require specialized skills and knowledge, providing services like medical consultations and diagnosis, legal advice, and translation and interpreting. There is a growing sense of anxiety about what the future portends.
A second worry is the prospect of further social polarization. Wealth could become concentrated in the hands of those providing the ideas and capital for the development and use of AI, along with a small elite of managers with the skills to harness the technology, while the situation for the majority of other workers displaced by technology becomes increasingly bleak. The social divide could be exacerbated as disparities grow between the haves and the have-nots.
To prevent technological progress from tearing our societies apart, we must, in the short term, strengthen social safety nets to support workers who lose their jobs, and in the longer term, we will need to enhance educational and vocational training opportunities for work that only humans can perform.
Needless to say, expanding safety nets and offering retraining will both require considerable fiscal resources. There are already concerns about safety-net inadequacies for workers in the expanding gig economy, prompting some to call for a basic income that would guarantee a minimum standard of living to everyone.
This was the context that gave rise to the idea of a robot tax, which could slow down the pace of automation, at least temporarily, and give policymakers time to secure the resources for needed countermeasures. It is thus much more than just a tax proposal; it entails rethinking the role of public policy in an age when AI and robots are having an increasingly large impact on our lives. The issue goes to the heart of what we want public policy to address in the digital society of the future.
Available at: https://www.tokyofoundation.org/research/ detail.php?id=899. Retrieved on: Feb 29, 2024. Adapted.
