Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has expressed deep concern that the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) poses a serious threat to human jobs and that companies are increasingly looking to hire robots to replace humans. Within hours of his comments, Microsoft's announcement of a voluntary exit offer for about 60,000 employees sparked heated debate in tech circles.

In an interview with 'The Observer', Bill Gates described the AI ​​era as a historical development. He commented that the concept that humans are the most intelligent creatures on Earth is no longer valid. He predicted that AI would first take over white-collar jobs, and then even manual labor tasks through humanoid robots. He analyzed the current trend in the business sector as "hire a robot, fire a human, and never look back."

Gates warned that if the number of employees decreases, governments will lose tax revenue, which will have a serious impact on social security schemes. To overcome this problem, he suggested imposing a 'token tax' on the use of AI, as well as increasing taxes on billionaires like himself. He said that he has paid $14 billion in taxes in his lifetime and is ready to pay $40 billion if necessary.

It is noteworthy that Microsoft announced this voluntary exit offer the day after the publication of Bill Gates' interview. The offer applies to employees at level 70 and below in eligible teams in the US, Canada, UK and India. This is about a quarter of the company's total workforce. 

However, it does not apply to all teams. Employees who accept this offer will be provided with a severance package based on their service, stock vesting for a period of time, limited health insurance, and help finding a new job. Employees have been given until early December to decide on this.

However, Microsoft has clarified that artificial intelligence is not the reason for this offer. It seems that this decision was taken as part of a strategy to raise funds for huge investments in the AI ​​sector and reduce costs. It is known that the company has also launched a voluntary retirement scheme earlier this year and laid off employees earlier. Despite the benefits of AI, such as accelerating drug discovery, Gates believes that this will be a major test for the performance of governments.