Polls that continue to show that the public isn’t thrilled about artificial intelligence and the online response to an attack on the home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on the heels of an article highlighting concerns about the CEO’s behavior indicate that the technology and its supporters have a “PR problem,” as recent think pieces have noted. Does Elon Musk have the answer?
Pew Research Center data shows that people have a variety of concerns about AI, including its potential impact on education, creativity and human relationships to how it will impact jobs. Already, Audacy has reported on research that indicates use of AI in the classroom makes people dumber and about companies like citing AI as a reason for slashing jobs.
So, it makes sense that people would be concerned about AI’s impact on their career, especially as its proponents sell the technology as something that could replace humans in a wide range of positions and many people already feel under pressure financially. These claims also beg the question: if nobody has a job, who will even pay to run the AI or buy the things it produces?
Musk’s solution to a potential AI employment crisis – one that he has championed for years – is Universal High Income (UHI), an expanded form of Universal Basic Income (UBI). That is, checks from the federal government provided to everyone. Altman has also advocated for a universal income program.
“Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government is the best way to deal with unemployment caused by AI,” said Musk (who is often listed as the richest man in the world and owns his own AI company, xAI) in a post on X, the social media platform he owns. “AI/robotics will produce goods & services far in excess of the increase in the money supply, so there will not be inflation.”
He got some pushback on this proposal.
“Perhaps you can be the first to pay into the system?” writer Molly Jong Fast said in a comment on the post.
“You have to be an utter fool to believe they’re going to implement UHI or UBI once people become *economically obselete*. They don't give a damn about us right now, and they won't later. Obviously,” said Dr. Émile P. Torres, writer of the Realtime Techpocalypse Newsletter in an X post.
Musk’s foray into public policy in the U.S. as the leader of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative was met with backlash. Last December, Musk himself even called the program – which cut government jobs and contracts – a disappointment.
So, what are the chances of his Universal High Income idea working? Some experts have weighed in on it.
“Peter Diamandis, a leading expert on the topic, has said that UHI will become possible not by giving out more money, but by reducing the cost of everything from food and energy to healthcare and education,” said Business Insider.
It also cited Karl Widerquist, a philosophy professor at Georgetown University-Qatar and the author of several books about Universal Basic Income. Widerquist said that “Musk is right” that a universal basic income program could cover basic living for people if AI reduces overall costs.
However, Widerquist also said Musk is “wrong” to focus on unemployment when “low wages and stagnating salaries” are bigger issues. He doesn’t think Musk’s prediction about “no inflation” is one we should count on.
“Even though GDP has multiplied over the past 50 years, most of the benefits of that growth have gone to the wealthiest people while poverty has remained,” said Business Insider, summing up Widerquist .
James Ransom, a research fellow at University College London, also told the outlet that retraining and reskilling workers is likely what we would need if we could afford generous universal income. He said there would be a “productivity windfall for many workers,” if they learn new skills.
“For those who do lose their jobs, retraining done well preserves agency and self-worth in ways a basic income cannot,” Ransom said.
Economist and Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz warned Fortune last month that “if we don’t do anything about managing AI, there is a threat that it will lead to more inequality.” He also said that “if the tech oligarchs continue in their mindset overall of downscaling government, that will impair the ability of government to facilitate the AI transition.”
Libertarian outlet Reason said there is a narrative that “an AI-powered economy will be able to automate most economic production, making the economy as a whole much richer, but leaving the average person jobless and destitute,” thus creating the need for universal income programs. However, it questioned that narrative, and noted that claims about AI’s future abilities are speculative.
There are also concerns about AI beyond its impact on jobs, such as the feasibility of data center proposals for facilities needed to power the technology and its impact on the environment. A CNBC article from this week has this headline: “The public sours on AI and data centers as Anthropic, OpenAI look to IPO and tech keeps spending.”
Another X user named Not_the_Bee asked Musk how we would determine who gets a penthouse to live in and “how do we deal with the very real necessity of scarcity in day to day life for everything that can’t be mass manufactured by robots?” if we have UHI.
In response, the mega-billionaire claimed that: “Actually, AI/Robotics will mean everyone can have a penthouse if they want. The output of goods & services will be several orders of magnitude higher than today’s economy. Read the Iain Banks Culture books [a science fiction series] for the best imagining of how it will be. That said, what is the future you want? Amazing abundance seems the best to me.”
