Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins/Futurism. Source: Getty Images
in a huge 20,000 word screw upAnthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned that AI will act as a “normal labor substitute for humans”. Elon Musk previously envisioned a future where “probably none of us will have a job”, but where we will all have “universal high incomes”. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI was asked earlier also “Universal extreme wealth for all,” unlocked by AI.
As tech giants talk a big game, financial experts are worried about AI coming into our jobs, threatening to leave many of us with no way to make ends meet. According to an analysis by research firm forresterAI could be poised to destroy six percent of all US jobs by 2030 US Senate report Found that the AI industry could eliminate 100 million American jobs over the next ten years.
“I find the employment outcome appalling, ‘Investing is wonderful'” Howard Marks recently commentedEchoing sentiments expressed earlier by Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski. “I am extremely concerned about what will happen to people whose jobs AI makes unnecessary, or who cannot get jobs because of it.”
One answer to the growing threat of AI automation, which is gaining support from both the political left and right, is Universal Basic Income, or UBI.
In England, lawmakers have proposed a generous subsidy program aimed at giving roughly thirty $2,200 per month Studying the social impacts of “free money” – a test of the feasibility of UBI. In Ireland, a UBI program giving artists $380 a week has just launched made permanentAfter a successful three-year pilot.
“It’s amazing,” Irish artist Elinor O’Donovan told Independent In an interview about the UBI program. “I’m able to spend more time working on my art. It’s a huge relief to know that the money is coming for three years. My well-being has improved because there is security. I can breathe and really focus on what I want to achieve.”
This premise actually sounds pretty good in the wake of the AI boom, at least until you realize who’s pushing for it: the same technology. billionaires Who say that their AI system is going to destroy everyone’s jobs.
These CEOs are not proposing a slowdown in AI development or democratic ownership of the AI future they are creating. What they offer instead is a monthly check, secret money for a future they’re building without our consent.
The good news is that such an AI dystopia remains a fantasy, at least for now. Current AI systems are not even close to generating the financial returns needed to completely overturn the capitalist job market; they can hardly do it basic algebraCompleting the tasks at a human level is a far cry.
real danger, Some economists argueIs it not that AI is taking jobs, but that massive spending on AI infrastructure is suppressing wages while inflating the bubble that enriches investors? If this is the case, then the real villains are not AI chatbots, but venture capitalists, Wall Street brokers and tech moguls who are ruining the economy to make a quick buck.
UBI cannot solve this because it does not answer the fundamental questions at the core of the crisis: who owns the wealth created by AI, and who decides how it is distributed?
More on AI: Sam Altman says AI will cause massive deflation, making money too valuable
