Bill Gates foresees massive AI job loss: these VCs disagree | E2330 | This Week in Startups

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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: https://x.com/pitdesi

Better Tomorrow Ventures: https://www.btv.vc/

Dave McClure on X: https://x.com/davemcclure

Practical Venture Capital: https://practicalvc.com/

Hussein Kanji on X: https://x.com/hkanji

Hoxton Ventures: https://hoxtonventures.com/

Relevant Links

GatesNotes: "The turbulent AI era is here": https://www.gatesnotes.com/a-turbulent-ai-era-and-critical-choices-to-make

NPR: Meta settlement coverage: https://www.npr.org/2026/08/26/nx-s1-5944781/meta-settlement-child-safety-lawsuit

TechCrunch: Stripe agrees to buy OpenRouter: https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/16/stripe-will-reportedly-acquire-ai-gateway-startup-openrouter-for-7b/

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

Instinct AI agent (waitlist): https://instinct.co/

TechCrunch: Instinct coverage: https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/24/instincts-powerful-ai-assistant-is-raising-privacy-and-security-concerns/

CNBC: OpenAI CFO says IPO is coming in 2027: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/19/open-ai-ipo-timing-2027-friar.html

Basis: https://www.getbasis.ai/

TaxGPT: https://www.taxgpt.com/

Cusp AI: https://cusp.ai/

Abacus: https://goabacus.co/

Micro1: https://www.micro1.ai/

Mottu: https://mottu.com.br/

EquityBee: https://equitybee.com/

Kiva: https://www.kiva.org/

Timestamps:

0:00 It's Hussein's first time on the VC Roundtable!

2:09 Gates says "turbulent era" for AI is here

8:56 Microloans, Kiva, and "universal basic income"

9:23 Thanks to our partner, Lightfield, the AI-native CRM that updates itself, so you never have to! Try it for free at https://lightfield.app

13:00 Why sole proprietorships may be AI's biggest beneficiary

20:29 Got a new business idea? Northwest helps you bring it to life. Get a free domain, email, phone number, and more, with no purchase required! Learn more at https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/twistdomain

21:00 Should the gov't take a stake in AI labs?

30:24 Thanks to our partners at Rippling! Head to https://Rippling.ai/twist to get the only AI built to give you full visibility across your startup and take complex actions across your entire business.

32:44 Meta's $17.1B settlement

45:14 Is anything still fundable outside of AI?

46:29 Stripe and SpaceX deals

55:54 Skild AI's pancake flipping demo

59:49 Sheel's Hottest Takes

1:04:37 Dave's Charts

1:09:07 Who loses money when there are no IPOs?

1:16:49 The Agent Wars heat up

1:24:56 Everyone's favorite investments

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