There you have it! Bill Gates now says AI will take jobs on both the white-collar and blue-collar…
October 26, 2026 · 0 likes · 0 comments
Workforce
There you have it! Bill Gates now says AI will take jobs on both the white-collar and blue-collar side during a roughly 20-year transition, and that it could be "as tumultuous a period as there's been in human history."
He said it on the Decoder podcast, posted Oct. 22.
"My big concern is this 20-year transition period, where they'll have winners and losers and a lot of disruption."
He named telesales, telesupport and accounting first, work AI will do "radically cheaper, radically faster, and even more accurately." Then humanoid robots for blue-collar work: "robots that can build houses, grow food, do surgery."
His ideas for the people on the losing side? Early retirement and caps on working hours. No cost estimate. No word on who pays.
To be fair, he called 20 years an estimate, not a firm prediction. And Sam Altman said in May that AI hasn't wiped out as many white-collar jobs as he expected, while national unemployment hasn't moved much.
That transition is exactly what I wrote REPLACEMENT about. Not some far-off robot future, but the years in between, when AI is already doing the work, paychecks start disappearing and somebody has to decide who gets left holding the bill. Gates just put a number on it. Twenty years is a long time to tell a family to wait for "true abundance."
Now, where I stand personally on the messenger.
I think Bill Gates is a pile of dirt. I'll own that one.
Here's what's on the record. Gates told his foundation's staff in February that he first met Jeffrey Epstein in 2011, three years after Epstein's 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution, and kept meeting him until 2014, according to The Wall Street Journal, reported by CBS News. He called it "a huge mistake." He also said "I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit," and he has denied any knowledge of Epstein's crimes.
To me, a billionaire who kept showing up for a convicted sex offender for three years, and then gets to lecture the rest of us about the human cost of his industry, has gotten away with a lot. That's my opinion of his judgment.
And notice who is asking for "stronger government oversight." A man whose own company, Microsoft, is one of the biggest AI players on earth.
The builders aren't going to protect your job. Plan for the transition yourself.
REPLACEMENT: https://lnkd.in/gZCFR5Tk
Full story, just the facts: https://lnkd.in/ew8qHsmZ
He said it on the Decoder podcast, posted Oct. 22.
"My big concern is this 20-year transition period, where they'll have winners and losers and a lot of disruption."
He named telesales, telesupport and accounting first, work AI will do "radically cheaper, radically faster, and even more accurately." Then humanoid robots for blue-collar work: "robots that can build houses, grow food, do surgery."
His ideas for the people on the losing side? Early retirement and caps on working hours. No cost estimate. No word on who pays.
To be fair, he called 20 years an estimate, not a firm prediction. And Sam Altman said in May that AI hasn't wiped out as many white-collar jobs as he expected, while national unemployment hasn't moved much.
That transition is exactly what I wrote REPLACEMENT about. Not some far-off robot future, but the years in between, when AI is already doing the work, paychecks start disappearing and somebody has to decide who gets left holding the bill. Gates just put a number on it. Twenty years is a long time to tell a family to wait for "true abundance."
Now, where I stand personally on the messenger.
I think Bill Gates is a pile of dirt. I'll own that one.
Here's what's on the record. Gates told his foundation's staff in February that he first met Jeffrey Epstein in 2011, three years after Epstein's 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution, and kept meeting him until 2014, according to The Wall Street Journal, reported by CBS News. He called it "a huge mistake." He also said "I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit," and he has denied any knowledge of Epstein's crimes.
To me, a billionaire who kept showing up for a convicted sex offender for three years, and then gets to lecture the rest of us about the human cost of his industry, has gotten away with a lot. That's my opinion of his judgment.
And notice who is asking for "stronger government oversight." A man whose own company, Microsoft, is one of the biggest AI players on earth.
The builders aren't going to protect your job. Plan for the transition yourself.
REPLACEMENT: https://lnkd.in/gZCFR5Tk
Full story, just the facts: https://lnkd.in/ew8qHsmZ