Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates suggested nearly a decade ago in an interview with QZ that a robot performing a human's job should be taxed like its human counterpart, arguing this could slow automation and fund exploration into other employment. The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) opposed the move, instead proposing further tax on profits to offset automation's impact. Supporters of similar measures include Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei, who called for an AI tax proposal to build a multi-million-dollar worker fund, and Andrew Yang, who advocated for a tax on automation and AI rather than on humans. Since 2017, the conversation has shifted toward automation based on software and digital tools like large language models (LLMs) rather than physical robotics, though the robotics industry is growing fast.