Big Tech's answer for AI-driven job loss: universal basic income

One of Silicon Valley's favorite ideas isn't really tech-driven. The universal basic income — "cash aid from the government, no strings attached" — is the tech industry's solution to the anticipated wave of job losses created by the rise of artificial intelligence, NPR said. That's why OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has spent the last few years funding an experiment in giving people free money. "Do people sit around and play video games," he asked in a blog post, "or do they create new things?" Now we have some answers.

New results from Unconditional Income Study found that giving $1,000 a month to people in Illinois and Texas "improved financial flexibility without disincentivizing workforce participation," Fast Company said. Recipients had a safety net, in other words, but still wanted to work — though they worked a little less. But skepticism still dies hard. "There is this resilient myth that cash no strings attached promotes laziness," said New York University's Juliana Uhuru Bidadanure.

Can the universal basic income change lives? 

The Altman-funded experience is a reminder that "money can indeed buy happiness," Brandon Vigliarolo said at The Register, which covers the tech industry. Cash recipients "were more likely to visit the hospital, see a specialist, go to the dentist, and cut down on excess alcohol and drug use." And the participants were also 10% more likely to actively seek a job than people who didn't receive the UBI. That's the good news. The bad news, at least for employers: Cash recipients "were less likely to apply for jobs they didn't want."

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Giving Americans $1,000 a month is "better than nothing," Lucas Ropek said at Gizmodo. But the study shows it's not enough to "drastically reshape the economic outlook of that person's life." One finding: The cash had "close to no net impact" on the physical health of cash recipients. The payments did help those people meet their "most basic needs, including affording groceries and paying rent." And that allowed some of the recipients to dream of starting their own businesses, but few actually did so. The takeaway? "Solving poverty isn't a quick and easy process."

Will UBI save us from the problems of AI?

Silicon Valley's support for the UBI is premised on the notion of AI-driven job losses. But "if there's no great wave of AI-driven unemployment, if the AI bubble bursts," then that support might also disappear, Oshan Jarow said at Vox. There are good arguments for a universal basic income that have nothing to do with the tech industry's prognostications. "Unconditional cash can be an effective anti-poverty policy." That's why UBI supporters "might be better off severing ties with speculations about AI altogether."

Some observers are suspicious of the tech industry's motives, said The New York Times. "Is Silicon Valley pushing basic income as a way to make the state smaller? To replace all the other safety nets?" asked Bidadanure, the former director of the Stanford Basic Income Lab. Others believe the industry has a responsibility to do more good with all its wealth. "Silicon Valley is good at building products and building companies and hiring lots of people," said Salesforce's Marc Benioff, "but it has a long way to go on social responsibility."