Policy
AI for Human Rights : Universal Basic Income (UBI)
Tax on tech companies to ensure equitable re-distribution of socio-economic benefits from AI technologies
AI and socio-economic inequality
The impact of AI on the labour system will extend further than automation. Whilst with increasing government intervention, automation can replace human labour without destroying professions to some some extent (where workers able to re-skill themselves) it is important to recognise that technological employment caused by AI will be a long-term structural unemployment rather than a temporary spell.
In addition, AI technologies have potential to go beyond physical processes to intellectual activities by replacing human intelligence and, as a result, impacting more professions.
Given that AI technologies are owned and developed by power tech oligopolies with focus on profit (in capitalist systems) there is a risk that such technologies will reproduce economic inequalities and injustices.
One solution to addressing labour-market impacts of AI is the idea of Universal Basic Income. This is where income is provided by the government to citizens which is funded through taxation of AI technologies. This income can work as an important social net and allow individuals to pursue meaningful activities such as creativity and social care in order to help other human beings.
Key ideas behind UBI
Economic security and equality
Everyone has a right to employment and a minimum standard of living in a rapidly changing labour market
Benefits to all, not select few
It is necessary to ensure that technological advancements benefit all, not just a privileged few
Human flourishing
With basic income, individuals can invest their time on education, creativity, social care and volunteering to support fellow human beings.
“There is no country and no people, I think, who can looking forward to the age of leisure and of abundance without a dread. For we have been trained for too long to strive and not enjoy” – John Maynard Keynes
AI for Human Rights 