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In a true visionary style, Elon Musk, the technology titan, tweeted that
universal basic income (UBI), or cash handed out to people regardless of their employment status, will be necessary, in the future, if Artificial Intelligence (AI) takes over most human jobs.
Last week, a Twitter user had asked Musk if he supported universal basic
income, to which he replied, ‘Universal income will be necessary over time if AI takes over most human jobs.’ In November 2016, in an interview with CNBC, Musk had said, “There is a pretty good chance we end up with a universal basic income, or something like that, due to automation. Yeah, I am not sure what else one would do. I think that is what would happen.”
Interestingly, the idea of a UBI has attracted support from various corners.
During his Harvard Commencement speech in May 2017, Facebook founder
Mark Zuckerberg said that “we should explore ideas like universal basic
income to make sure everyone has a cushion to try new ideas.”
Richard Branson, a business magnate, investor, and philanthropist also spoke about UBI can be instrumental in providing everybody with an opportunity to work and thrive.
In fact, 43-year-old American entrepreneur Andrew Yang who is running for the US President in the next elections, has based his campaign on the idea of offering $1,000 or approximately Rs 70,000 per month to all US citizens between 18 and 64 years of age – no strings attached, from the US government.
While the idea of a universal basic income sounds like an interesting
approach to managing the loss of income due to AI taking over human jobs in the future it is still a long way to go before we see some development.
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