Bill Gates says AI should not be allowed to deliver a terminal diagnosis to a patient, even though the technology is fully capable of doing so.
In an Aug. 25 blog post, the Microsoft co-founder proposed a category of work he calls “Human Reserved” — jobs AI could technically perform but that society should deliberately keep for people. He cited a robot delivering news of an incurable disease as an example. “There’s no technical reason why it couldn’t,” Mr. Gates wrote. “Yet it shouldn’t.”
Mr. Gates said the idea grew out of watching the caregivers who looked after his father through Alzheimer’s disease, calling that work “irreplaceably human.” He also renewed his call for taxing AI tokens and robots to fund worker retraining, arguing current tax policy rewards companies for automating jobs away, and said new domestic and international AI governance institutions need to be built starting now.
In lower-income countries, where doctors and other health workers are in short supply, Mr. Gates said he expects AI to do more good than harm. The Gates Foundation, which he chairs, plans to detail related AI health work at its Goalkeepers event next month.
Mr. Gates acknowledged he does not have all the answers on who should decide which healthcare roles stay “Human Reserved,” calling it a question that “will need to be worked out in public.”
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