Experts discuss universal basic income as compensation for job loss due to automation

Dubai-UAE: 14 February, 2017:  Waves of new technology that disrupt every aspect of our lives will continue to be the norm throughout the 21st century, and governments and policy makers need to refine their strategies to harness this trend to maximum advantage, participants of the World Government Summit 2017 learnt on the final day of the event. Experts added that disruptive technology – automation and artificial intelligence (AI) – will significantly affect the workforce in the coming years, and governments should prepare their citizens for this change.

The comments were the essence of a panel discussion entitled ‘Legacy of the 21stCentury’, moderated by Joe Brown, Editor-in-Chief of Popular Science magazine. Panelists included Cade Metz, leading artificial intelligence journalist at WIRED magazine, Elizabeth Rhodes, Basic Income Research Director at Y Combinator, who participated via video conference, and Jonathan Matus, Founder and CEO at Zendrive.

Topics included the ramifications of automation on human jobs and the possibility of a world where machines can essentially replace blue-collar labor, including the impact on social welfare, concept of customer service, and liability for substandard work. The two burning questions were: Will AI simply snatch jobs or also complement them? And how can governments prepare their citizens for the transition?

Talking about how artificial intelligence has already made its way into our lives, Jonathan Matus said: “Vertical AI is the intelligence that suggests which restaurant you should go to, what news stories you should read and where you should fly next based on your interests, while general AI or super-intelligence is a self-driving car or a robot that thinks for itself.”

The panel paid particular attention to potential downsides of the technological advancements in regard to jobs that can be easily automated. For instance, three-and-a-half percent of US citizens mention driving as a job. With the advent of self-driving cars, a huge chunk of the population fears losing their jobs.
Matus added: “This is an area where we can make an important distinction. Driving on the highway is much easier than driving in the city. So, the autonomy of driving in trucks can come faster. Instead of building trucks that will drive all the way from the warehouse to the destination, companies can use autonomy for highways and a human driver within the city. Conglomerates such as Walmart will embrace this, and in the next seven years, robots will drive a massive number of miles.”

Elizabeth Rhodes, who has been working on a pilot program for a universal basic income for everyone, said: “The idea to give people a basic income as one of their human rights has always existed and is considered as a great measure to curtail crime. When machines replace jobs, there will be a real cost to educating people and filling the deficit of lost wages. An unconditional basic income is a dividend that gives citizens income security and offers them a safety net that they can use for further innovations. We are studying how this move will affect labor supply. If we give people money for nothing, they may also just stop working. Therefore, we are researching the impact of universal basic income on the individual and macro-economic level.”

The panelists also noted that fears around the rise of artificial intelligence were unfounded, and as machines take on analytical and, to an extent, cognitive tasks, there is a growing apprehension about what this means for the human workforce, and for the way industries operate.

In this context, Cade Metz said: “There is always a supply deficit for a lot of jobs. With the advent of AI, machines can complement what humans do instead of replacing them entirely. AI will not necessarily snatch away jobs. Also, for a universal basic income to materialize, there need to be massive economic investments, which will ultimately slow down the economy. In scenarios like this it is imperative for governments to know what they can do. When automation hits, governments need to collect data on what jobs have been replaced and think of solutions accordingly.”

Advocating against universal basic income, Metz added: “If we just give people money unconditionally, it can go two ways – either they will give back to society through creating something new or just while away their time playing video games. To avoid the latter, governments should focus on education and job training. While we still do not know how many jobs will be affected, we can prepare citizens to work with AI better to strike a balance.”

Ending the discussion on a hopeful note, Jonathan Matus said: “People need to know there will be a short- and a long-term challenge. With automation, political unrest will immediately increase, and governments will need to invest in training people on a long-term basis to prevent unemployment. While making decisions, policy makers need to treat people like real humans and apply empathy. People need hope and a chance to control their destiny to accept AI as a positive phenomenon.”

The World Government Summit (WGS) 2017 has drawn the participation of more than 4,000 personalities from 139 countries around the world, reflecting the leading stature of the summit on regional and international levels and the high interest from governments, global organizations, private and public sector entities, decision makers, entrepreneurs, academics and university students as well as scientists and innovators. WGS 2017 features 150 speakers across 114 sessions that highlight the world’s most pressing challenges and showcase best practices and cutting-edge solutions to deal with them.