https://scottsantens.substack.com/p/i-just-launched-the-ai-pledge-for
"I’ve been working on universal basic income full-time since 2013. Thirteen
years. In that time, I’ve watched the conversation shift from “that’s a crazy
idea” to “that’s inevitable.” Especially among the people building AI. And I’ve
watched that shift accomplish very little.
That’s the problem I want to talk about today.
It is now routine for AI leaders to say that something like UBI will be
necessary. Elon Musk recently posted that “Universal HIGH INCOME via checks
issued by the Federal government is the best way to deal with unemployment
caused by AI.” He’s been saying versions of this since 2016. Demis Hassabis,
CEO of Google DeepMind and a Nobel laureate, told CNN we may need “universal
high income” so that AI’s productivity gains are distributed across the
economy. Mustafa Suleyman, now CEO of Microsoft AI, warned in 2023 that AI
would create “a serious number of losers” and called UBI a measure we need to
start talking about “in a serious way.”
But are they truly being serious about it? Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
recently told
Semafor she is skeptical of tech billionaires’ stated support
for UBI, saying the devil is in the details of their willingness to actually
fund it. She’s right to be skeptical. The words are everywhere. The action is
almost nowhere."
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
