Bill Gates ‘tricked’ US into desk jobs? ‘It wasn’t the vision’ says Perplexity CEO

Perplexity AI CEO Aravind Srinivas has claimed that Microsoft engineered the modern American office worker purely as a business strategy. Explaining company founder Bill Gates’ vision in a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Srinivas argued that the standard 9-to-5 desk job lifestyle isn't a natural evolution of work, but rather a brilliant corporate blueprint designed by Microsoft to sell software.According to Srinivas, the culture of sitting at a desk all day staring at a screen was intentionally built from the ground up. “Microsoft built this concept of the office worker because they wanted to sell office software,” Srinivas claimed, adding, “It was the mission of Bill Gates to put a PC on every desk and get people glued to them.”The revelation caught Rogan off guard, causing him to reflect on how quickly society adapted to this routine. “Wow. This type of lifestyle is a very recent thing that we’ve just now accepted as normal,” Rogan remarked, adding “they nail that one.”Bill Gates vs Steve Jobs visionSrinivas contrasted Bill Gates’ aggressive corporate vision with the philosophy of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. While Jobs wanted to create elegant, intuitive and beautiful machines, Microsoft’s goal was purely about the bottom line.“It wasn’t about making computing beautiful like the vision Steve Jobs had. All they cared about was selling computers so they could sell software. When you sell more software, that’s when you become rich,” Srinivas added.The Perplexity AI chief executive further explained that the strategy required training generations of workers to become dependent on Microsoft products before they even entered the workforce.“That’s why we all got trained into using Microsoft Word and Excel. Once you learned that, then you could work for a company that has a PC on their desk who’s paying Microsoft money to use software,” Srinivas concluded.By standardising programs like Microsoft Word and Excel in schools and early corporate culture, Microsoft ensured a cycle of profit.Get the latest technology news and updates. Download the TOI App.