Bitcoin Forum

Artificial intelligence will create so much wealth that every adult in the United States could be paid $13,500 per year from its windfall as soon as 10 years from now.

So says Sam Altman, co-founder and president of San Francisco-headquartered, artificial intelligence-focused nonprofit OpenAI.

“My work at OpenAI reminds me every day about the magnitude of the socioeconomic change that is coming sooner than most people believe,” Altman, who posted Tuesday. “Software that can think and learn will do more and more of the work that people now do.”

Altman calls it an “AI revolution,” and compares it in magnitude to the agricultural, industrial and computational technological revolutions. “The technological progress we make in the next 100 years will be far larger than all we’ve made since we first controlled fire and invented the wheel,” he wrote.

The government needs to respond accordingly. “If public policy doesn’t adapt accordingly, most people will end up worse off than they are today,” Altman said.

However, if the government collects and redistributes the wealth that AI will generate, AI’s exponential productivity gains could “make the society of the future much less divisive and enable everyone to participate in its gains,” Altman says.

AI will enable computer programs to “read legal documents” and “give medical advice” in the next five years; in the next 10 computers will “do assembly-line work” and “maybe even become companions,” Altman wrote. “And in the decades after that, [AI] will do almost everything, including making new scientific discoveries that will expand our concept of ‘everything.’”

As the pace of development accelerates, AI “will create phenomenal wealth” but at the same time the price of labor “will fall towards zero,” Altman said.

“It sounds utopian, but it’s something technology can deliver (and in some cases already has). Imagine a world where, for decades, everything – housing, education, food, clothing, etc.– became half as expensive every two years.”

In this future, where wealth will come from companies and land, governments should tax capital, not labor, and those taxes should be distributed to citizens, Altman said.

In his post, Altman proposed an American Equity Fund that taxes sufficiently large companies 2.5% of their market value in the form of company shares, and 2.5% of the value of all land in the form of dollars. Private companies with annual revenue of $1 billion or more would also be taxed and pay in cash, Altman said.

All citizens over 18 would receive payment in both dollars and company shares. People could do as they see fit with that money, Altman said.

By giving every citizen ownership in the country, society would improve for everyone. “Everyone who owns a share in Amazon wants the share price to rise. As people’s individual assets rise in tandem with the country’s, they have a literal stake in seeing their country do well,” Altman said.

With this system in mind, in 10 years, the 250 million adults living in America would get $13,500 per year, Altman said. To get this number, Altman estimated that the $50 trillion worth of value in US companies as calculated by market capitalization and the $30 trillion worth of privately held land in the US both “roughly double” over the coming decade.

“That dividend could be much higher if AI accelerates growth, but even if it’s not, $13,500 will have much greater purchasing power than it does now because technology will have greatly reduced the cost of goods and services,” Altman wrote. “And that effective purchasing power will go up dramatically every year.”

Elon Musk has hinted at a similar future. “There is a pretty good chance we end up with a universal basic income, or something like that, due to automation,” Musk told CNBC in 2016. “Yeah, I am not sure what else one would do. I think that is what would happen.”

Musk is also a co-founder of OpenAI but left the board in 2018 citing the fact that Tesla was becoming an AI company as it developed self-driving capabilities.

Such a system is “both pro-business and pro-people,” Altman said, and would therefore bring together “a remarkably broad constituency.”

However, it’s worth noting that whether or not that is true, with the current climate of political acrimony, it is certainly debatable whether lawmakers would bring such a plan to fruition, especially within a decade.

If government policy were to adapt as it needs to, though, how people spend their time would also look radically different, said Altman.

“As AI produces most of the world’s basic goods and services, people will be freed up to spend more time with people they care about, care for people, appreciate art and nature, or work toward social good,” Altman wrote.

“The changes coming are unstoppable,” Altman said. “If we embrace them and plan for them, we can use them to create a much fairer, happier, and more prosperous society. The future can be almost unimaginably great.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/17/openais-altman-ai-will-make-wealth-to-pay-all-adults-13500-a-year.html

Just imagining what a human body Will be like if natural cells,tissues, brains etc  are replaced by artificial alternatives and paid/rewarded to enjoy life while the artificial ones do most of the jobs

AI is not soms which is a new concept, out if the blue but rather it's something that has been developing since ages and people are using it as normally as anything. We have bots for trading , we have bots for suggesting the price movement of cryptocurrencies, these things are already being used and especially on gambling websites people are already aware of the bot that plays tricks when you win. But now slowly by slowly people have started using AI to control their houses , people are using AI in stocks , when we talk about AI , I am honestly scared because we all remember the computer program that taught himself, how to walk , AI could definately take over .... Even we did have to shut down two of them because they developed their own language and started speaking. Who will control it? Let's see.

Just imagining what a human body Will be like if natural cells,tissues, brains etc  are replaced by artificial alternatives and paid/rewarded to enjoy life while the artificial ones do most of the jobs

The government needs to respond accordingly. “If public policy doesn’t adapt accordingly, most people will end up worse off than they are today,” Altman said.

However, if the government collects and redistributes the wealth that AI will generate, AI’s exponential productivity gains could “make the society of the future much less divisive and enable everyone to participate in its gains,” Altman says.

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I like to watch all this artificial intelligence stuff mostly on TV - and I wouldn't want AI to start managing our lives to the point that it will determine how we live. I remember the time before the internet, mobile phones and game consoles - and if I compare that to the present I can say that people were much happier and healthier in the past.

Technology on the one hand helps people, but it also has its dark side which results in people becoming more and more antisocial, developing very violent behaviors and becoming so to speak stupider as technology starts to think for them. Instead of developing cognitive abilities, we increasingly rely on technology to think for us and solve problems and come up with solutions, which we no longer question because they are created by something that is smarter than us anyway.

If you look at any SF movie, AI and new advanced technologies have mostly resulted in humans becoming inferior beings who have completely lost control of practically everything, and most of all over their freedom.

AI will enable computer programs to “read legal documents” and “give medical advice” in the next five years; in the next 10 computers will “do assembly-line work” and “maybe even become companions,” Altman wrote. “And in the decades after that, [AI] will do almost everything, including making new scientific discoveries that will expand our concept of ‘everything.’”

As the pace of development accelerates, AI “will create phenomenal wealth” but at the same time the price of labor “will fall towards zero,” Altman said.

“It sounds utopian, but it’s something technology can deliver (and in some cases already has). Imagine a world where, for decades, everything – housing, education, food, clothing, etc.– became half as expensive every two years.”

In this future, where wealth will come from companies and land, governments should tax capital, not labor, and those taxes should be distributed to citizens, Altman said.

All citizens over 18 would receive payment in both dollars and company shares. People could do as they see fit with that money, Altman said.


“As AI produces most of the world’s basic goods and services, people will be freed up to spend more time with people they care about, care for people, appreciate art and nature..

We can never escape the fact about jobs with this same circle that continuously rolls on with the exact cause and purpose. It's better to have an AI do that tedious task instead of relying on a person who gets bored and probably has been bored by doing the same damn thing every day. With AI, I believe it's more efficient that way, and owners will probably agree on the same thing.

Once we have actualized this, a better generation will focus on the right things, hopefully. Having dividends of that would be great for sure.

I still have a doubt about this AI thing compared to humans who have free will and emotions while a computer can't feel anything. I don't like the idea of having AI/robots that would do most of the jobs that human can do especially if it doesn't require strength. But somehow I like how AI works almost perfectly than we humans but the question is, if this grow up. Will there be enough jobs for most people on who lives on that specific country if it was handled by AI?

Yeah, sure the owner would say he's lucky to have some AI works for him to save money but there are works also that AI cannot handle if it requires a delicate skills when handling such as making clothes, cooking and many more that would require some interaction.

This is kind of scary if you could imagine the whole thing controlled by robots or AI.

Uneducated people, people with disabilities and even people without any disabilities need help in the future do max out their profits and to deal with the complex world in overall.

I still have a doubt about this AI thing compared to humans who have free will and emotions while a computer can't feel anything. I don't like the idea of having AI/robots that would do most of the jobs that human can do especially if it doesn't require strength. But somehow I like how AI works almost perfectly than we humans but the question is, if this grow up. Will there be enough jobs for most people on who lives on that specific country if it was handled by AI?

Yeah, sure the owner would say he's lucky to have some AI works for him to save money but there are works also that AI cannot handle if it requires a delicate skills when handling such as making clothes, cooking and many more that would require some interaction.

This is kind of scary if you could imagine the whole thing controlled by robots or AI.

I get that it "can" but just like how the article mentions, that "only" happens if the wealth created by AI is distributed to the people, we all know that is a lie right? Capitalist wealthy billionaires will do everything in their power to use AI to make even more money and give people even less money, it could be another usecase for AI, figure out how to keep people so poor that they can still survive but barely, because that's what rich people want us to be, so poor that we can still purchase stuff from them but not be rich.

We all know that we are going to see people with the first trillion dollar networth in modern times if this happens, well we will see it eventually anyway but AI will make it easier.

This dream is not new. A future world where we work less and live better thanks to machines, and, in this case AI. Today we live better than we did 50, 100 and 1000 years ago, but we don't stop working, at least most of us. I hope this is the case, but I have my doubts. It would be ideal a future where working is not an obligation and people do what they like, being the rest of productive jobs carried out by machines.

I believe that in the future the tough and dangerous work will be done by Artificial Intelligence, and humans will do light work and work that involves emotions. Large factories really need Artificial Intelligence so that work is more effective and productive than using humans as workers.
In exchange, the government can collect bigger taxes for companies that use Artificial Intelligence as their workers. Tax revenue can be used to help people who have not found a job, so I don't mind Artificial Intelligence taking over some of the jobs that humans do. As long as there is clear regulation from the government regarding Artificial Intelligence, and also do not harm humans. There is nothing wrong with this world starting to employ Artificial Intelligence for jobs that are usually done by humans.

I get that it "can" but just like how the article mentions, that "only" happens if the wealth created by AI is distributed to the people, we all know that is a lie right? Capitalist wealthy billionaires will do everything in their power to use AI to make even more money and give people even less money, it could be another usecase for AI, figure out how to keep people so poor that they can still survive but barely, because that's what rich people want us to be, so poor that we can still purchase stuff from them but not be rich.

We all know that we are going to see people with the first trillion dollar networth in modern times if this happens, well we will see it eventually anyway but AI will make it easier.

AI carries a potential to boost productivity and profit margins, if the big promises attached to it pan out. Productivity from the 1950s to the present have doubled in some areas. Generating wealth has never been an issue. The main difficulties we've faced are booming population growth coupled with wealth distribution. In terms of whether gains in productivity can exhibit a trickle down effect.

The way we are going with these AI of a thing , I hope we don’t end up creating the ones that will bomb earth to pieces. Cause this is really turning to something else since all these dumb scientists now wants AI to do everything single thing on earth, what’s wrong with our normal way of living?

Why don’t we just live our lives the way it is and only create minor AI that we can easily manage, than all these big stuffs that doesn’t make any sense, seriously.

Well, whatever , I just hope that whatever they are creating they better find ways that they are going to be keeping them under control, so they don’t do some stupid things.

We already use artificial intellect in everyday life. It is an integral part of the progress. Even Google assistant available on smartphones is with artificial intelligence. The idea that AI is using to work and help people to save their time is good but all is good in moderation. Now Tesla provides cars that are ruling on autopilot, many factories work without people (have only controlling personal), talking that soon airplanes will also fly without pilots (totally on autopilot), so all these leads to decreasing of working places. People are fired and will be fired more and all those words that government will pay money to someone because AI will work instead of them is a big fairy tale.

In his post, Altman proposed an American Equity Fund that taxes sufficiently large companies 2.5% of their market value in the form of company shares, and 2.5% of the value of all land in the form of dollars. Private companies with annual revenue of $1 billion or more would also be taxed and pay in cash, Altman said