Bill Gates foresees massive AI job loss: these VCs disagree

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Today's show:

*Bill Gates dropped a 6,000 word warning: AI will be "the greatest equalizer ever invented, or the worst sort of injustice." The Microsoft icon has an AI agenda for the US: new national institutions, AI use taxes, and jobs legally reserved for humans only.

Our VC roundtable guests — Sheel Mohnot (Better Tomorrow Ventures), Dave McClure (Practical Venture Capital), and Hussein Kanji — push back hard. Is taxing profits a better fix for AI taking jobs than taxing the tokens themselves?

PLUS: Meta's $17B kids safety settlement… does it go far enough? Why does Stripe want OpenRouter? A peek at the VC's actual portfolio mark-ups. AND begun, the AI agent wars have. Our panel chooses between OpenClaw, Instinct, and Grok Bot.

Guests

Sheel Mohnot on X: x.com/pitdesi

Better Tomorrow Ventures: btv.vc

Dave McClure on X: x.com/davemcclure

Practical Venture Capital: practicalvc.com

Hussein Kanji on X: x.com/hkanji

Hoxton Ventures: hoxtonventures.com

Relevant Links

GatesNotes: "The turbulent AI era is here": gatesnotes.com/a-turbulent-ai-era-and-critical…

NPR: Meta settlement coverage: npr.org/2026/08/26/nx-s1-5944781/meta-settleme…

TechCrunch: Stripe agrees to buy OpenRouter: techcrunch.com/2026/08/16/stripe-will-reported…

Skild AI S1 Demo: skild.ai/blogs/s1

Instinct AI agent (waitlist): instinct.co

TechCrunch: Instinct coverage: techcrunch.com/2026/08/24/instincts-powerful-a…

CNBC: OpenAI CFO says IPO is coming in 2027: cnbc.com/2026/08/19/open-ai-ipo-timing-2027-fr…

Basis: getbasis.ai

TaxGPT: taxgpt.com

Cusp AI: cusp.ai

Abacus: goabacus.co

Micro1: micro1.ai

Mottu: mottu.com.br

EquityBee: equitybee.com

Kiva: kiva.org

Timestamps:

It's Hussein's first time on the VC Roundtable!

Gates says "turbulent era" for AI is here

Microloans, Kiva, and "universal basic income"

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Why sole proprietorships may be AI's biggest beneficiary

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Should the gov't take a stake in AI labs?

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Meta's $17.1B settlement

Is anything still fundable outside of AI?

Stripe and SpaceX deals

Skild AI's pancake flipping demo

Sheel's Hottest Takes

Dave's Charts

Who loses money when there are no IPOs?

The Agent Wars heat up

Everyone's favorite investments

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