Bill Gates foresees massive AI job loss: these VCs disagree | E2330

**Jason Calacanis** (0:00)
Bill Gates published a 6,000 word essay today called The Turbulent AI Era is Here. AI will, quote, either be the greatest equalizer ever invented or the worst source of injustice, and that right now, quote, there is no plan.

**Dave McClure** (0:13)
Some jobs are probably gonna go permanently, go away.

**Hussein Kanji** (0:17)
Humans just kind of sort of get in the way. It is probably like a real thing.

**Dave McClure** (0:21)
I trust tech more than I trust government.

**Jason Calacanis** (0:23)
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**Hussein Kanji** (0:34)
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**Hussein Kanji** (0:58)
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**Jason Calacanis** (1:09)
It even prospects and books your meetings. Used by thousands of startups. Free at lightfield.app. All right, everybody, welcome back to This Week in Startups slash This Week in VC. Every Wednesday, we do a VC Roundtable.
10 a.m. on the left coast, 1 p.m. on the right coast, and here in the great state of Texas, we go live at noon on Wednesdays. With me today, what a lineup. What an amazing amount of news. The docket runneth over. Sheel Mohnot is with us. How are you doing, Sheel?

**Sheel Mohnot** (1:38)
Great. Good to see you.

**Jason Calacanis** (1:39)
Good to see you. You and I getting into it. Minimum wage, jobs.

**Sheel Mohnot** (1:43)
I love it.

**Jason Calacanis** (1:43)
Great debates on it.

**Sheel Mohnot** (1:45)
I love it.

**Jason Calacanis** (1:45)
Dave McClure, founder of 500 Startups, not 500 Global. He's got a great podcast about strip mining the VC industry called Trading Places.
I just came up with that. Trading Places. He's using my podcast to promote his podcast, but I give him a promo for his podcast instead of paying him the $400 minimum wage for his SAG AFTRA appearance here. He's with Practical Venture Capital.

**Dave McClure** (2:13)
We launched on your show a year ago.

**Jason Calacanis** (2:14)
Yes, and I get your shorts. Your shorts are great. TikTok shorts are great.

**Dave McClure** (2:17)
He's talking about my video clips, not my pants.

**Jason Calacanis** (2:20)
No, Dave is known for wearing shorts in completely inappropriate settings like conferences, his office, et cetera. And with us, I think for the first time, Hussein Kanji is here. Hussein, it's the first time you're on the program.

**Dave McClure** (2:34)
Yeah.

**Hussein Kanji** (2:35)
First time dialing in from London, so making it global.

**Jason Calacanis** (2:39)
Great. And Dave, where are you dialing in from?

**Dave McClure** (2:41)
I'm in Sunnyvale, which is very sunny today.

**Jason Calacanis** (2:44)
Sheel, I assume. San Francisco?

**Sheel Mohnot** (2:46)
San Francisco. All right.

**Jason Calacanis** (2:47)
And I'm in Austin at the Ranch. Lots to talk about today. Three great investors on the program. And I think we start out with Bill Gates. Bill Gates published a 6,000-word essay today called The Turbulent AI Era is Here. The choices we make now are critical. Obviously, you have to hit exactly 6,000 words. That's what Jensen and Zuckerberg did recently. If you don't hit 6,000 words, we don't know if you wrote it yourself. I didn't run this one through an AI checker yet, so we'll see if it's a drunken miller or not. But he argues AI will, quote, either be the greatest equalizer ever invented or the worst source of injustice, and that right now, quote, there is no plan. Gates warns AI risks are outpacing its benefits. Interesting. Threatening jobs across law, medicine, and software. He's calling for a new national institution of some type and AI usage taxes and making some jobs reserve jobs that can only be done by humans. Dave, you read the manifesto, or at least the summary of it.
Your thoughts on Gates coming in at this moment now, so from a meta commentary perspective, why is Gates commenting now?
And what resonated with you as true and what resonated to you as not true or God forbid, a worse take?

**Dave McClure** (4:14)
I don't know particularly why now, although maybe Gates had some bad press that he's trying to get past in the last- Okay, I like that theory. That might be some reason. I think the three main points I kind of agree with, some jobs are probably gonna go permanently, go away.