When Robots Take Our Jobs, Who Pays? My Journey into the AI Tax Debate6 min readJust now--A delivery robot crosses a quiet street a small harbinger of a future where machines handle tasks once done by humans.A few months ago, while scrolling through economic headlines, I stumbled upon a curious suggestion from an Indian think tank: a proposal for a robot tax aimed at companies using AI to replace human workers. It sounded equal parts futuristic and philosophical. Can you really tax robots? What would that even look like?As someone who lives at the crossroads of technology and strategy, I found myself intrigued. I believe in the transformative power of AI but Im equally concerned about the silent costs that progress can leave behind. And thats where the idea of an AI tax steps in: a controversial, complex, yet deeply timely concept that tries to answer a simple question if technology takes your job, who pays?Lets explore what an AI tax really mean? Is it the answer to automation-induced unemployment or a misguided brake on innovation? Can we learn anything from history? And above all, how do we ensure that the benefits of AI dont come at the cost of human dignity?What Is an AI Tax?The term AI tax or robot tax is often used interchangeably to describe a policy tool designed to make companies financially accountable for replacing human workers with automation. The idea: if a business lays off people because machines or AI systems are doing their jobs, then that business should pay a tax similar to what it would have paid in income or payroll taxes if those workers were still employed.The revenue from such a tax could be used in two major ways:To fund government services that would otherwise suffer due to falling payroll and income tax revenues.To support displaced workers through unemployment benefits, reskilling programs, or subsidies for transition into new jobs.Its not just a hypothetical. Politicians and economists globally have floated variations of this concept. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, for example, once suggested that if robots replace humans, then they should be taxed like humans. In India, proposals have been made to tax companies profiting from labor replacement by AI. Some U.S. states, like New York, have even introduced preliminary bills to that effect.But before we dive into whether such a tax makes sense, I wanted to step back and look at history.History Repeats: Lessons from the Industrial RevolutionThe question of machines taking human jobs is not new. In the early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution brought mechanical looms, steam engines, and factories. With them came economic growth and mass displacement.One group of workers, the Luddites, became infamous for smashing machines that had rendered their weaving skills obsolete. Though often dismissed as technophobes, the Luddites were really just fighting for survival in a world changing too quickly.Eventually, industrialization did lead to more jobs and better productivity but not without decades of social pain, wage stagnation, and unrest. The state stepped in with reforms: minimum wage laws, the 40-hour workweek, unemployment insurance, and eventually the welfare state. These werent immediate, but reactive.The parallels with today are clear. AI is our modern-day steam engine. And while it might birth new industries, the transition could be harsh for many. The question is: Can we manage this disruption more thoughtfully than we did in the past?Global Perspectives: Different Approaches, Shared ConcernsAcross the globe, countries are grappling with the implications of automation but their policy responses vary.South Korea curtailed tax breaks for automation in 2017, signaling concern about falling income tax revenues and rising unemployment.The European Union debated a robot tax but ultimately rejected it, focusing instead on ethical AI guidelines.The U.S., despite some voices like Bernie Sanders advocating for it, has not taken substantial federal action but proposals have emerged at the state level.India has seen economists and think tanks recommend an AI tax to support reskilling efforts in sectors like IT and finance.Interestingly, even countries that are highly pro-automation, like Japan and China, face their own dilemmas. In Japan, automation is seen as a solution to labor shortages caused by an aging population. In China, the state is more focused on leading in AI than regulating its labor impact at least for now.Clearly, there is no global consensus. But theres a shared anxiety: how to balance automation-driven growth with employment security.Who Should Pay the AI Tax?If an AI tax is implemented, who should be taxed? The developers of AI platforms like OpenAI, Google, or Microsoft? Or the companies that deploy these tools like banks, retailers, and manufacturers?There are two schools of thought:Tax the user: This is the most common suggestion. If a company replaces 100 workers with an AI system, they should pay a tax roughly equivalent to what they would have contributed in payroll taxes.Tax the creator: Some argue that the major tech firms profiting from AI proliferation should share responsibility, especially if their tools broadly disrupt entire industries.Practically, taxing the deploying company is more enforceable. It ties the tax to a clear outcome: fewer employees. But it doesnt absolve platform companies of ethical responsibility. Some, like Sam Altman of OpenAI, have even suggested distributing AI-generated wealth via a global AI dividend.Why Tax AI at All?Supporters of the AI tax argue it can:Offset lost income tax revenues, especially if millions of people are no longer earning salaries.Fund social protections, like unemployment insurance, training programs, or even wage subsidies.Slow down runaway automation, giving society time to adapt.Critics, on the other hand, raise valid concerns:It could stifle innovation by making automation less attractive.Its hard to define and measure what counts as job-displacing AI.It might create perverse incentives, pushing companies to offshore or use contract labor instead.These are real challenges. But as weve seen in environmental or data privacy regulation, thoughtful policy design can navigate such tensions.Alternatives to the AI TaxEven if the AI tax isnt the silver bullet, it opens the door to important conversations about economic adaptation.Some alternative or complementary ideas include:Job guarantee programs: Governments act as employers of last resort, offering socially useful work in areas like caregiving or climate resilience.Shorter workweeks: Redistribute work by reducing hours per worker without reducing pay an idea already being tested in several countries. Interestingly, Bill Gates once floated the idea of a two- or three-day workweek as a long-term consequence of automation. But that raises practical questions: would salaries be cut in half? Not necessarily, Gates suggested, if productivity continues to rise dramatically. The idea is that with machines doing more of the routine work, humans could work fewer hours while maintaining similar output and potentially similar pay provided the gains from productivity are shared equitably.Reskilling at scale: Create lifelong learning ecosystems with training vouchers, partnerships with industry, and community education hubs.Wage insurance and transition funds: Help workers who move into lower-paid roles by supplementing their income temporarily.While Im personally skeptical of Universal Basic Income (UBI), I believe in ensuring purposeful livelihoods, not just passive financial support. People want to work not just for money, but for meaning.Final Thoughts: Its About ChoicesAn AI tax wont be easy to implement. But the broader question it poses is urgent: how do we balance innovation with inclusion? Do we let the market decide who wins and who gets left behind or do we steer the ship more deliberately?History shows us what happens when we let disruption play out without safeguards. People suffer, societies fracture. If we are truly at the cusp of an AI-driven revolution, then we must decide not just how fast we go, but who we take along.Ill be watching these debates closely, and perhaps even contributing to policy ideas. But Ill leave you with this question:In a world where machines can do more and more of what humans once did, what responsibilities do we place on the companies deploying them? And what kind of society do we want to build in response?

Strands is a daily word puzzle game that pits you against a massive jumble of random letters. That grid of letters holds a selection of themed words, but those words are secret, hiding behind the single clue you get.

Ajinomoto, the Japanese firm behind MSG, is ramping up production of ABF, a key material used in semiconductor packaging.

InAbbey RoadsStudio One, even a lick of paint could ruin everything.Famous for hosting Adele, Harry Styles, and U2, its where the scores of Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Wicked were recorded, as well as the soundtracks of blockbuster games like Call of Duty, Halo, and Final Fantasy. Its also where Ryan Gosling delivered his memorable Im Just Kenfor Barbie.Nearly a century after its opening, Studio One underwent a six-month, multimillion-pound refurbishment, with the main priority being the preservation of one very important thing: the sound.What we dont want to do is change the acoustics, so every minute detail in the room has been conserved and preserved, so the sound doesnt shift, said Sally Davies, managing director of Abbey Road Studios.The reverb of the 4,844-square-foot room has been maintained at 2.3 seconds, the same as it was in the 1970s. Theres been no redecorating or style makeover, leaving the originalart deco wall panelsuntouched.We have simply washed down the walls to preserve that sound, said Davies, adding that the floor was re-sanded and oiled, but not varnished. Most of the upgrades, she explained, are technological upgrades in the control room. This room is just about preserving that magic.A pilgrimage for music fansOpened in 1931, this hallowed hallonce a nine-bedroom house on a grand suburban street in Londons St. Johns Wood neighborhoodbecame the worlds first recording studio. Its where stereo was invented and its visited every day by music fans from around the world, who are happy just to stand on the street outside.Davies says that more than a million people a year make a pilgrimage to the crossing outside, many to recreate the cover ofthe Beatles Abbey Road albumand that number could increase afterSam Mendess upcoming biopicsstarring Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan, Harris Dickinson, and Joseph Quinn as the Fab Four.And while John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr are famously known for using Studio Two, they also made history in the larger Studio One, which they used for the worlds first global live performance, a rendition of All You Need Is Love beamed to television sets around the world in 1967.Before the Beatles, Studio One had already cemented its place in music history, when it was opened by British composer Sir Edward Elgar, who recorded his Land of Hope and Glory with the London Symphony Orchestra. Its also hosted other music greats like Maria Callas, Igor Stravinsky, Daniel Barenboim, Fats Waller, and Glenn Miller.Due to its huge size, more than double Studio Two, it can fit a 100-piece orchestra and 100-member choir at the same timewhich is perfect for recording film soundtracks, and explains why 6 to 7 out of every 10 Hollywood films are scored at Abbey Road, according to the studio.History being madeStanding on the balcony, overlooking the 40-foot-high room, Davies points out the original screen that was used to show Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) while musicians played along to record the soundtrack.Since then, everything from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Marvels Black Panther and Guardians of the Galaxy to Barbie were scored in Studio One. For the last, all the musicians came in with something pink, whether a pink instrument or piece of clothing.Oscar-nominated composer Daniel Pemberton has been recording in Studio One since 2009 and calls his creative home a spectacular space.Outside, it just looks like a normal house. And then you come in and you find this space in it thats like almost the size of a football pitch. In fact, I have played football in there once, he laughs.Pemberton is known for scoring Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse, Ferrari, and The Trial of the Chicago 7, and creating the Slow Horses theme song and Strange Game, withMick Jagger.Whats so exciting about a room like Studio One is what happens on the day is what happens for the rest of time, he says. Its like history is being made, whether its good history or bad history or whatever, youre making a moment then.Pemberton notes the stories, whether personal or musical, that have unfolded within the walls of Studio One.The ghosts are insane in there, he said.Davies agrees that the history adds to the enchantment.You walk into this room and you can feel it. ... There is a magic in the sound. It sounds phenomenal. There is a spirituality in who has been here, who has performed here, she says. So when we see artists come through, you know that immediate reaction of, Oh my gosh. Im in Studio One.To celebrate the reopening this week, Abbey Road Studios showcased an unusual art form for the space: dance, which incorporated Pembertons scores, remixed by resident artist Jordan Rakei and choreographed by Joseph Toonga.It kind of like threw me back a bit like, wow, it really is big, said Toonga of the first time he saw the studio. He then incorporated that feeling into a dance which spanned hip-hop, krumping, and ballet.Up next, the first client to record in Studio One since the refurbishment is a hush-hush Hollywood franchise.But there are lots of secrets at Abbey Road. One of them is Pembertons plan to record the unique rattling sound of the new railings for a movie soundtrack.There was concern that the hollow, art deco-style bars would upset the acoustics of the room, and a backup plan was made to fill them with sand if they messed with the reverb.Luckily, the empty bars were allowed to stay because Pemberton is delighted by the noise they make when you run past them with keysits another dramatic sound that can only be created in Studio One and will make its way into theaters around the world, via a film score.By Hilary Fox, Associated Press

From Apple vs Android to McDonald's vs Burger King.

After years of managerial turmoil and a failed merger with Honda, Nissan is attempting to right the ship. Trumps tariffs couldnt have come at a worse time.

Minimalist gadgets like the new Light Phone III, a smartphone that barely does anything, promise to help us focus. The trade-offs are big.

html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"A recording of Blackmagic Designs livestream of its announcements for NAB 2025. You can see the new features in Da Vinci Resolve 20.0 at 2:13:20 in the video.Blackmagic Design has updated DaVinci Resolve, its free colour grading, editing and post-production software, and DaVinci Resolve Studio, its $295 commercial edition.DaVinci Resolve Studio 20.0 is a major release, adding over 100 new tools, including a set of new AI-powered features for video editing and audio production.The update currently available in public beta is free to all existing users.Below, weve rounded up the key features for colorists and effects artists, including a new Chroma Warp tool, a new deep compositing toolset, and full support for multi-layer EXRs.The new Chroma Warp tool makes it possible to create looks with intuitive gesture controls.Color page: New Chroma Warp, plus updates to the Resolve FX Warper and Magic MaskFor grading, the Color pages Color Warper gets a new Chroma Warp tool.It is designed to create looks intuitively, with users selecting a color in the viewer, and dragging to adjust its hue and saturation simultaneously.Among the existing tools, the Resolve FX Warper effect gets a new Curves Warp mode, which creates a custom polygon with spline points for finer control when warping images.Magic Mask, DaVinci Resolves AI-based feature for generating mattes, has been updated, and now operates in a single mode for both people and objects.Workflow is also now more precise, with users now placing points to make selections, then using the paint tools to include or exclude surrounding regions of the image.Another key AI-based feature, the Resolve FX Depth Map effect, which automatically generates depth mattes, has been updated to improve speed and accuracy.For color management across a pipeline, the software has been updated to ACES 2.0, and OpenColorIO is supported as Resolve FX.Effects artists get deep compositing support in the integrated Fusion compositing toolset.Fusion: new deep compositing toolsetFor compositing and effects work, the Fusion page gets support for deep compositing.Deep compositing, long supported in more VFX-focused apps like Nuke, makes use of depth data encoded in image formats like OpenEXR to control object visibility.It simplifies the process of generating and managing holdouts, and generates fewer visual artifacts, particularly when working with motion blur or environment fog.Deep images can now be viewed in the Fusion viewer or the 3D view, and there is a new set of nodes to merge, transform, resize, crop, recolor and generate holdouts.It is also possible to render deep images from the 3D environment, and export them as deep EXRs via the Fusion saver node.Fusion: new vector warping toolset, plus support for 180 VR and multi-layer workflowsOther new features in the Fusion page include a new optical-flow-based vector warping toolset, for image patching and cleanup, and for effects like digital makeup.There is also a new 360 Dome Light for environment lighting, and support for 180 VR, with a number of key tools updated to support 180 workflows.Pipeline improvements include full multi-layer workflows, with all of Fusions nodes now able to access each layer within multi-layer EXR or PSD files.Fusion also now natively supports Cryptomatte ID matte data in EXR files.We aim to cover the new features on the Fusion Page and in Fusion Studio, Blackmagic Designs standalone compositing app in a separate story, so check back for more details.IntelliScript automatically generates an edit timeline matching a user-provided script.Other toolsets: lots of new AI features for video editing and audio productionDaVinci Resolve Studio 20.0 also features a lot of new AI features powered by the softwares Neural Engine, although primarily in the video editing and audio production toolsets.The Cut and Edit pages get new AI tools for automatically creating edit timelines matching a user-provided script; generating animated subtitles; editing or extending music to match clip length; and matching tone, level and reverberance for dialogue.There are also new tools for recording new voiceovers during editing to match an edit.Workflow improvements include a dedicated curve view for keyframe editing; plus a new MultiText tool and updates to the Text+ tool for better control of the layout of on-screen text.For audio post work, the Fairlight page gets new AI features for removing silences from raw footage, and automatically balancing an audio mix.We dont cover video or audio editing on CG Channel, but you can find a complete list of changes via the links at the foot of the story.Codec and format supportOther key changes include native support for ProRes encoding on Windows and Linux systems as well as macOS.MV-HEVC encoding is now supported on systems with NVIDIA GPUs, and H.265 4:2:2 encoding and decoding are GPU-accelerated on NVIDIAs new Blackwell GPUs.Again, you can find a full list of changes to codec and platform support via the links at the foot of the story.Upcoming features include generative AI-based background extension.Future updates: new toolsets for immersive video and AI background generationBlackmagic Design also announced two upcoming features not present in the initial beta.Artists creating mixed reality content will get a new toolset for ingesting, editing and delivering immersive video for Apples Vision Pro headset.There will also be a new generative AI feature, Resolve FX AI Set Extender, available via Blackmagic Cloud.More details will be announced later this year, but Blackmagic says that it will enable users to generate new backgrounds for shots by entering simple text prompts.The video above shows a range of use cases, including extending or adding objects to existing footage, and generating a complete new background behind a foreground object.Price, system requirements and release dateDaVinci Resolve 20.0 and DaVinci Resolve Studio 20.0 are available in beta for Windows 10+, Rocky Linux 8.6, and macOS 14.0+.Blackmagic Design hasnt announced a final release date for the updates, which are free to existing users.New perpetual licenses of the base edition are free; the Studio edition, which adds AI features, stereoscopic 3D tools, and HDR grading, costs $295.Read a full list of new features in DaVinci Resolve 20.0 and DaVinci Resolve Studio 20.0Have your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.

There's debate over using carbon-plated running shoes for marathons -- here's what the experts say.

Update: Pre-orders are live in Europe, delayed in USMario Kart WorldImage: NintendoDonkey Kong BananzaImage: NintendoThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (US)Image: NintendoThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (EU)Image: NintendoThe Legend of Zelda: Tears of the KingdomImage: NintendoSuper Mario Party Jamboree + Jamboree TVImage: NintendoKirby and the Forgotten Land + Star Crossed WorldImage: NintendoMetroid Prime 4: BeyondImage: NintendoWhich is your favourite Nintendo Switch 2 box art so far? (432 votes)Mario Kart World44%Donkey Kong Bananza41%Zelda: Breath of the Wild (US)4%Zelda: Breath of the Wild (EU) 0.5%Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom 0.9%Super Mario Party Jamboree + Jamboree TV 0%Kirby and the Forgotten Land + Star Crossed World1%Metroid Prime 4: Beyond9%Thanks for voting! We'll see you next time for another round of Box Art Brawl.Related GamesSee Also