In a massive 20,000-word screed, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned that AI will act as a “general labor substitute for humans.” Elon Musk has previously imagined a future where “probably none of us will have a job,” but where we’ll all have “universal high income.” Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has previously called for “universal extreme wealth for all,” unlocked by AI.
As the tech moguls talk a big game, financial experts are in a frenzy about AI coming for our jobs, thereby threatening to leave many of us without any way to make ends meet. According to one analysis by the research firm Forrester, AI could be poised to destroy six percent of all US jobs by 2030. A US Senate report found that the AI industry could wipe out 100 million US jobs in the next ten years.
“I find the resulting outlook for employment terrifying,” investment wunderkind Howard Marks remarked recently, echoing sentiments made earlier by Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski. “I am enormously concerned about what will happen to the people whose jobs AI renders unnecessary, or who can’t find jobs because of it.”
One answer to the mounting threat of AI automation, which is gaining favor on both the political left and right is a universal basic income, or UBI.
In England, lawmakers have proposed a generous subsidy program meant to give thirty people roughly $2,200 a month to study the social effects of “free money” — a test of UBI’s viability. In Ireland, a UBI program granting artists $380 a week has just been made permanent, after a successful three-year pilot.
“It’s amazing,” Irish artist Elinor O’Donovan told the Independent in an interview about the UBI program. “I’ve been able to spend more time working on my art. Knowing the money is coming for three years is such a huge relief. My wellbeing has improved because there’s security. I can take a breath and really focus on what I want to achieve.”
The premise really does sound great in the wake of the AI boom, at least until you realize who’s pushing for it: the same tech billionaires who say their AI systems are about to eliminate everyone’s jobs.
These CEOs aren’t proposing a slowdown on AI development or democratized ownership of the AI future they’re creating. What they offer instead is a monthly check, hush 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 aren’t even close to producing the kind of financial returns needed to completely upend the capitalist job market; they can barely do basic algebra, let alone complete tasks at a human level.
The real danger, some economists argue, isn’t that AI is taking jobs, but that the massive spending on AI infrastructure is suppressing wages while inflating a bubble that enriches investors. If this is the case, then the real villains aren’t the AI chatbots, but the venture capitalists, Wall Street brokers, and tech moguls driving the economy into ruin to make a quick buck.
UBI can’t solve this because it doesn’t answer the fundamental questions at the heart of the crisis: who owns the wealth AI creates, and who decides how it’s distributed?
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