<
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/nov/16/ai-is-coming-for-our-jobs-could-universal-basic-income-be-the-solution>
"The idea of a guaranteed income for all has been floating around for
centuries, its popularity ebbing and flowing with the passing tide of current
events. While it is still considered by many to be a radical concept,
proponents of a universal basic income (UBI) no longer see it only as a
solution to poverty but as the answer to some of the biggest threats faced by
modern workers: wage inequality, job insecurity – and the looming possibility
of AI-induced job losses.
Elon Musk, at the recent Bletchley Park summit, said he believed “no job is
needed” due to the development of AI, and that a job can be for “personal
satisfaction”. Economist and political theorist Karl Widerquist, professor of
philosophy at Georgetown University-Qatar, sees it differently.
“Even if AI takes your job away, you don’t necessarily just become unemployed
for the rest of your life,” he says. “What happens is you go down in the labour
market, you start crowding the lower-income professions.”
Widerquist believes, at least in the short term, that the growth of AI will
push white-collar workers into the gig economy, and into other forms of poorly
paid, insecure work. Such a shift in the workforce would, he fears, drive down
wages and conditions, while increasing inequality.
A UBI policy in response to AI and automation would address the failure of
employers to distribute the spoils of economic growth – propelled, at least in
part, by automation – fairly among workers, says Widerquist.
Some go further still, pointing to UBI as a dividend due to workers for their
role in the development and dissemination of knowledge used to train AI models
such as ChatGPT. “Why,” asks Scott Santens, editor of website
Basic Income
Today, “should only one or two companies get rich off of the capital, the
human work, that we all created?”"
Via Scott Santens:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/article-in-i-was-93887722
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
