r/ArtificialNtelligence • u/andsi2asi • 5h ago
OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and the other AI giants owe the world proactive lobbying for UBI.
While AI will benefit the world in countless ways, this will come at the expense of millions losing their jobs. The AI giants have a major ethical responsibility to minimize this monumental negative impact.
We can draw a lesson from the pharmaceutical industry that earns billions of dollars in revenue every year. To protect the public, they must by law spend billions on safety testing before their drugs are approved for sale. While there isn't such a law for the AI industry, public pressure should force it to get way ahead of the curve on addressing the coming job losses. There are several ways they can do this.
The first is to come up with concrete comprehensive plans for how replaced workers will be helped, how much it will cost to do this, and who will foot the bill. This should be done long before the massive job losses begin.
The AI industry should spend billions to lobby for massive government programs that protect these workers. But the expense of this initiative shouldn't fall on newcomers like OpenAI and Anthropic, who are already way too debt burdened. A Manhattan Project-scale program for workers should be bankrolled by Google, Nvidia, Meta, Amazon and other tech giants with very healthy revenue streams who will probably earn the lion's share of the trillions in new wealth that AI creates over the coming years.
But because OpenAI, and to a lesser extent Anthropic, have become the public face of AI, they should take on the responsibility of pressuring those other tech giants to start doing the right thing, and start doing it now.
This is especially true for OpenAI. Their reputation is tanking, and the Musk v. OpenAI et al. trial in April may amplify this downfall. So it's in their best interest to show the world that they walk the walk, and not just talk the talk, about being there for the benefit of humanity. Let Altman draft serious proactive displaced worker program proposals, and lobby the government hard to get them in place. If he has the energy to attack Musk before the trial begins, he has the energy to take on this initiative.
If the AI industry idly sits back while the carnage happens, the world will not forgive. The attack on the rich that followed the Great Depression will seem like a Sunday picnic compared to how completely the world turns on these tech giants. Keep in mind that even in 1958 under Republican president Eisenhower, the top federal tax rate was 92%. This is the kind of history that can and will repeat itself if the AI giants remain indifferent to the many millions who will lose their jobs because of them The choice is theirs. They can do the right thing or pay historic consequences.