AI and UBI: a possibility

You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.

Malcolm S. Forbes

This next topic might seem like a bit of a stretch but in the round, it makes sense to consider it in light of the ultimate desire for AI to be a force for human good. If AI-driven applications and machines end up undertaking most labour-intensive, cognitive, calculative, analytical, knowledge-based, or non-empathetic roles in say 30 years, then it could (and probably will) result in the unintended consequence of lowering global living standards/incomes and creating more divided societies than ever before. The rich WILL get richer and the poor WILL get poorer with those in the middle sinking downwards with inevitability without an intentional, designed and implemented program of intervention driven by all actors — if this doesn’t make sense to you, let’s approach it from another angle.

We have established that Artificial Intelligence does already to a degree and ultimately will massively affect our jobs, careers, and cultures. When people are impacted by AI on a personal and/or corporate level, the larger transactional stakeholders (big corporates, banks, energy companies etc.) can manipulate this contraction of the available jobs market, the “income opportunity” field, to decrease the maximum income for a particular job whilst greatly increasing profit (which is an end goal of any economic and/or socio-political system). Let’s take the profession of data entry again. As AI and Intelligent Automation has developed to the point of literal if not functional or actual process redundancy, replacing the human with a more accurate, efficient and efficacious alternative with the resultant reduced expenditure, the requirement for human interaction has decreased considerably. Hence, even companies that haven’t implemented AI (or even intelligent automation) fully are not able to offer high incomes to their workers as they once would be due to greater overheads and reduced comparative efficiencies and competitiveness resulting in higher prices.

Of course, the extension to this is the actual removal of human capital and the wholly negative impact of redundancy and reduced income through no fault or lack of performance. This is where the responsibility of AI proponents, providers, developers, users, and those who profit from the proliferation of this technology need to come together to fulfil an ethical (and I would argue moral) responsibility for the betterment of humanity. Now as a staunch conservative, the idea of UBI goes against the grain somewhat however, my desire to see AI and associated technologies as a positive influence on human flourishing means that we as a global society need to seek an alternative to the socio-economic, cultural and intellectual destination that many see as inevitable, increased poverty, lower average income, reduced social mobility and education opportunities thus UBI can and should play an integral part of solving this impending problem.

Suppose all those who found themselves outside of the employment pool due to automation could be freed up to find their own flourishing, to contribute to societal good in new ways that provided not only income but fulfilment, challenge, growth, and enjoyment. They could do this safe in the knowledge that they are viewed not as a drain on society but as an important part of the development of society for good, to think new thoughts, create new art, dream new dreams and who knows, create the next step in human evolution? How many cures, technological leaps, great works, inspiring organisations lay dormant for fear of economic Armageddon? What if, freeing up society from the mundane AI also freed us up to explore the extra-ordinary, to raise families and by a social contract, be a creative and positive force for good? I realise this may seem a Utopian concept but, if the social contract remains in place, then why should not ALL of society benefit from the evolution of technology rather than those at the very top? AI offers us the opportunity to level-up society and gives us the platform through responsible capitalism, to empower future generations by freeing them from the shackles of low-grade post-automation employment.

Society can use this opportunity to become MORE empathetic, more emotionally connected and more ecologically and systemically aware, it’s a golden opportunity to shift the global community into the next phase of development, without the need for a “great reset” of a low-level state-owned servitude of those unlucky enough to be present at the wrong end of the economic scale.

The contract would be one of service to community, to creativity, to the arts, to creating new businesses, to life-long learning or the like. To agree to take care of and nurture the opportunity to develop oneself and provide benefits to society whilst being assured of equality of income and quality of life. Not a socialist paradise but a productive, creative, free “Elysium” in which all are empowered, supported and encouraged to be more and do more than our current economic system allows.

So, how would this work in practice? How could a UBI be used to deliver opportunities? It has to start at the separation of state and person. The pandemic has opened the eyes of people across the world but particularly in western societies, as to how they are actually governed, how fragile freedom really is and a new form of government is on the horizon, one where the state is smaller, less controlling, less demanding and less taxing. Now keep in mind that I am a conservative, but since 2020 my understanding of what it means to be human, what society truly is, has radically changed. I am sitting here inside a Costa Coffee shop in Hull (Other coffee vendors are available btw) and looking around there are people of all ages, some in groups, some sitting on their phones scrolling through social media not talking to each other, and still others who are laughing, joking, LOOKING at each other with no technology in sight, enjoy a very real human connection. I like to think that around me are the seeds of some fantastic new ideas, just being mulled over, brainstormed and discovered. The point is we have SUCH a diverse and beautiful humanity, so much human potential in everyone, so many stories to be told or to yet be told we simply cannot afford for this human joy to be quashed, suppressed or otherwise held back because we do not use technology for good.

So my idea (admittedly only a skeleton one) as a “manifesto” would be thus:

A) UBI should be for those who have been negatively materially and/or financially impacted by automation or AI advancements such that they have lost their job, income or otherwise been disadvantaged.

B) UBI needs to exist at a level that allows for a comfortable living so, needs to be maintained ABOVE inflation and outside of any additional benefits that the state gives the person. In the UK for example this should be circa £30k per year, outside of any benefits or assisted living means currently received.

c) ANY form of UBI needs to be separate from and completely outside the control of BOTH the state and the technology companies who ultimately will provide via employment taxation and corporate tax, the means by which this is delivered.

D) The receipt of UBI needs to be on a bi-annual contracted basis, that is the recipient needs to be contractually obligated to be creative, to learn, to work for the betterment of the community and society in which they live (without being too prescriptive) for a period of two years at a time. The idea is that UBI frees us up to explore our options, likes, dislikes and creativity without the burden of drudgery or the need to find work to provide.

E) Any income from the facility of UBI should be taxed at a level that allows for positive personal impact and illustrates a post-UBI contract capability. This tax should be managed by the UBI body, not the state or technology giants.

F) A person should be free to relinquish a UBI contract at any point but should be obliged to repay the fund if they have succeeded as a result of the opportunities the fund gave them.

G) A person may return to the fund after a period of work to begin the opportunity again.

H) The fund can be accessed after a period of 4 years of work from the age of 21.

These are only my initial thoughts, I am no politician nor economist and perhaps I could be accused of being naive and a little optimistic about the propensity of humanity to assist others but, without that hope our future is dark.

True accountability to the value of UBI is not towards the state but towards the community in which you live, reside, create and flourish. We don’t want to use UBI to simply allow people to sit at home, watch Netflix, shop on Amazon and maintain the status quo whilst enabling the widening of the wealth gap. It is not about the shirking of responsibility to earn, survive and thrive but to enable the opportunity to be freed from the burden of income whilst one pursues a dream or vision.

It’s basically creative entrepreneurship, using the outputs of previous human achievement to enable future human flourishing.

Propelling human development

Artificial Intelligence is the computing equivalent of inventing the wheel, of the first industrial revolution, it is as if we had sent a man to the moon for the first time, we are setting off on a journey to explore hitherto unknown galaxies and star systems and we are building a craft along the way. We don’t know how long it will take to get to where we don’t know, what we will discover on the way nor what our craft will look like when we arrive — all we have an imagined destination in mind. As long as this destination is the betterment of the lived experience, of all humanity, as long as we open up opportunities for ALL rather than a select few then our development can be assured.

This shift in the focus of computing power from “doing” to “being”, from serving to active assistance, from data to wisdom, is unstoppable (short of a catastrophic global event that ceases all efforts in this direction) and so rather than just accepting that we will be passengers once certain technological genies are out of their respective bottles, we (represented by the state, corporations, political and economic movements) need to grab the steering wheel and choose the direction we want this train to go in. At the moment, there are very few innovations (in terms of the whole movement of AI) that are directly and wholly concerned with human good, flourishing and the betterment of humanity as goals and this needs to change. (Comment here with any you can highlight that meet this and let's share those out!)

Of course, we will find ourselves embroiled in a lot of philosophical discussions, not the least of which will cover the ethics of new leaps forward, the impact of those, what in fact DOES the “betterment” of society look like; is it a WALL-E esque lazy Utopian experience where we all get physically fatter but emotional, intellectual, creative and collaborative anorexia or, is it the opposite? Or a happy medium? This is a discussion for every human to be involved in, not just the tech billionaires, industrial behemoths and governments with one eye on dictatorship or enslavement.

There are already a lot of great minds thinking about this but, taking it all back to the individual, how does EVERY human get to experience the benefits equally, of the technology, how do they make use of the opportunities this will offer.

I came into the world of technology in 1990 because I wanted to create binary art, I wanted to provide better tools for people to use in their everyday lives, to increase their value to an organisation but also, to free them to pursue a greater flourishing. 30 or so years on and I am jaded somewhat by the determination of the technology sector to, by and large, pursue profit over human profitability (“What will it profit it a man if he gains everything but loses his soul?”). Huge industries have grown out of replacing people without any thought given to what that human being will do after that. It is not good enough for technology companies to simply say “all we are doing is offering tools, what companies do with them is not our concern” because that’s intellectually, morally and ethically lazy.

Technology is ABOUT and FOR people, the people I work with, who work for me KNOW that my position is simply that technology is about people and we have an obligation to discuss the impacts of our digitisation and streamlining processes outside of the technical realm, to engage with client partners about HOW they will manage the impact, HOW they will encourage, realign, support and develop staff who are impacted by this. It simply cannot be about profit all the time, there MUST be a human angle to every technological creation, implementation or consideration.

A plea

The next 15–20 years will see the world radically changed by the power of this technology, let us ensure that it is for the good of the many, not the few. Let us as citizens of this blue-green ball hold our government, military and tech giants to account and ensure that human flourishing is at the heart of this evolution.

We have an amazing opportunity to revolutionise the way we think about each other, the world around us, the stars, distant galaxies, everything. AI can and I believe WILL BE a force for good

Artificial Intelligence will change our lives and those of our children and grandchildren massively. It will affect their jobs, careers, income, culture, life chances, friendships, development and opportunities. In the coming decades, we can expect a gradual but total reliance on and integration of AI in all our lives so let us prepare our laws, thinking, societal structures and thinking to better position us to lean into this potentially amazing future.

So there we are, this concludes my long look at different aspects of AI/Automation. I would love to get your feedback and comments on whether you think AI/Automation/Robotics will be a force for human good — drop me a line at shaun.turner@thoughty.studio or leave a comment here.