Bill Gates wants to see a robot tax

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1:57Anthropic, Cursor, Hugging Face, and other top companies and universities. It's a way for you to stay ahead of the field, learn from the best, and connect with the community. ODSE West 2026 is happening October 27th through the 29th in San Francisco and virtually. Now, I think this event will be really cool because it's focused on real-world applications and skills you can use at work. And, I mean, it's massive. With thousands of attendees, this is an awesome networking opportunity. It's great for startups, hiring managers, and AI tool builders. Again, ODSC West 2026 is happening October 27th through the 29th in San Francisco and virtually, so mark your calendar and make your plans now.

2:37Go to odsc.ai slash west and use promo code tcdaily for an additional 15 % off your pass to ODSC AI West 2026. That's O-D-S-C dot A-I slash West and use code TCDAILY to get an extra 15 % off the number one AI builders and training conference. Bill Gates wants to see a robo-tax. I'm Imran Shaikh and your daily crunch for Wednesday featuring three big tech headlines starts right now. On Wednesday, Apple announced that its next launch event is taking place on September 9th with a surprise and shine tagline. Now, the event's expected to be a notable one, as Apple's rumored to unveil its long-awaited foldable iPhone.

3:17As if that wasn't enough, it'll also be the first Apple event with John Ternus as CEO. Which, if you didn't know, Ternus is scheduled to take the reins of the tech giant from Tim Apple, I mean Tim Cook, on September 1st. Apple is expected to announce the new iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max as well. but the two models are rumored to be relatively iterative upgrades rather than a major redesign. Reports have indicated that the company won't be announcing the standard iPhone 18 until next year. The tech giants also expected to introduce the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra alongside new smart home devices.

3:56In addition to the new hardware, the company may announce launch dates for iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS Golden Gate, and other upcoming software updates. The event will take place at the Apple Park Campus in Cupertino, California at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. Amazon's smart home division Ring said on Wednesday that it's adopting a new encryption standard called TAKE, which stands for Throw Away the Key Encryption as the default setting for video encryption and user control. The company says this standard lets it protect user privacy without relying on end-to-end encryption, which can restrict some features such as video search, video description, and shared trusted users.

4:38Ring says the standard involves using a rotating set of encryption keys that are temporarily stored in the cloud and can only be accessed by the company to power features that users may have active. Once the request is completed, the company will delete the keys within 24 hours. Ring said the standard lets it temporarily decrypt and process users' video so it can offer cloud-based features like smart alerts, which can notify users when people, vehicles, or packages are in the camera's field of view. The company said that with Take, if you lose access to your device and buy a new one, you can authenticate yourself by standing near the ring cameras to recover your encryption keys.

5:18Separately, you can use a passphrase, cloud-backed backups, another approved device, or pass keys to recover your account. The company said that Take will be gradually rolled out to customers from September and will be the default standard worldwide. Well, Bill Gates posted a long diatribe, I mean essay, to his Gates Notes site today, showing just how much the Microsoft co-founder has been thinking about the social impacts of AI. Now, Gates is mostly in the responsible AI camp, arguing that pacing the frontier, the open letter published by AI employees pushing for an AI slowdown, would be a good idea, but expressing skepticism that it would be sustainable.

6:00He also expressed excitement about AI's benefits to science and healthcare, but worried about the labor impacts. I mean, all pretty familiar stuff if you follow Anthropik's policy work, but there were a few genuinely new ideas that could change the conversation, if, that is, they take off. For starters, he proposes a robot tax. You see, right now, if you're an employer and you hire someone, you pay payroll taxes on their earnings. But if you buy a robot, well, you can usually write it off right away as a business expense. Yeah, that's right. The tax system nudges you toward replacing people with machines.

6:36However, a tax would slow the rush away from human labor a little and raise money for retraining and a stronger safety net. He also proposes setting aside certain jobs as human-reserved, essentially barring AI from being used in certain tasks. It's an interesting idea, and one that would be easy for policymakers to enact. Now to the latest in startup business news, all in about one minute with our friend, producer Dennis. Imran, thank you. in hearing loss affects an estimated 50 million adults in the United States, but only around 20 % of those with diagnosed hearing loss seek treatment. Legato, a new hearing tech company, aims to close this gap.

7:21The startup emerged from stealth on Wednesday with$12 million in funding and a first look at its AI hearing glasses. The glasses, called Legato Frames, integrate the company's patented hearing assistance technology into the arms of eyewear frames. Legato frames are expected to launch after this fall. Legato is targeting people with mild to moderate hearing loss, which represents the largest segment of the hearing loss population, according to the startup. And folks, that's your Daily Crunch. Today's stories were reported by Ivan Mehta, Russell Brandom, Aisha Malik, and more awesome TechCrunch journalists.

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