[Photo: CDC.gov]

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and world’s richest man, said in an interview with Quartz that robots that steal human jobs should pay their fair share of taxes. Quartz reported that European Union lawmakers considered a proposal to tax robots in the past, but that law was rejected.

Recode, citing a McKinsey report, said that 50% of jobs performed by humans are vulnerable to robots, which could result in the loss of about $2.7 trillion in the U.S. alone.

“Exactly how you’d do it, measure it, you know, it’s interesting for people to start talking about now,” Gates said. “Some of it can come on the profits that are generated by the labor-saving efficiency there. Some of it can come directly in some type of robot tax. I don’t think the robot companies are going to be outraged that there might be a tax. It’s OK.”