From Bernie to Trump: Is A Consensus Building Around Taxing AI Companies?
Did your capitalist eyeballs about bug out of your head earlier this month when Senator Bernie Sanders proposed the creation of a Sovereign Wealth Fund to be funded by a tax on the leading AI companies?
Bernie’s move comes as politicians have suddenly (hello!) awakened to the negative economic effects AI will likely cause as it significantly displaces workers of all stripes in the job market.
Sanders’ bill proposes that the U.S. government imposes a one-time tax that is paid via stock – 50% ownership in the big AI companies – whereby the public will have a voice in the future of AI and receive a large share of the financial bounty the AI companies will be reaping.
“Since A.I. is built on the collective knowledge of humanity, the wealth it generates must benefit humanity,” says Sanders.
He continued, "This legislation would guarantee that the trillions of dollars potentially generated by A.I. are used to improve the lives of all of us — not simply to make the richest people in the world even richer."
The idea was immediately assailed by conservatives as “socialism,” though precedence exists for such actions even within the current administration.
During Trump’s second term, the government has taken stakes in five public companies. In one, the chipmaker Intel, it asked for and received a “golden share.”
And since Sanders’ announcement, Trump has said he would explore taking a stake in U.S. AI companies.
Sovereign wealth funds are old hat, particularly in oil-wealthy countries such as Saudi Arabia and Norway. Saudi Arabia’s goal is to use its fund to transform its economy by “stimulating new opportunities and shaping future blueprints for living and working,” while Norway’s objective has a more human face: to improve life for all Norwegians.
To give you an idea of the resources at play here, Norway’s Sovereign Fund has more than $2 trillion.
Up north in Alaska, that state’s sovereign wealth fund (the “Permanent Fund,” worth $84 billion) has been fueled by the state’s oil revenues and has paid dividends directly to eligible Alaskans for more than 50 years. Since 1982, the fund’s average payout has been $1,229.
OpenAI even proposed the idea of a public wealth fund to offset economic impacts from job displacement, but cannily did not provide a mechanism for doing this, more of a trial PR balloon than anything in my estimation.
In the shadow of the coming AI jobs storm, the idea of a sovereign fund is enticing, whether that’s to help fund retraining for those directly affected or to provide universal basic income to Americans.
No doubt, there will be lots of discussions and political horse-trading when it comes time to shape a solution for our country.
Sanders’ proposal very publicly starts the clock ticking on this idea. Ready, set, go!
One question we must all consider is: Should a relatively few people gain all the financial rewards from AI, which has trained on all of society’s knowledge and will occasion massive societal disruption through job loss?
Or should we all benefit at some level beyond simply typing in a prompt to get a 15-minute recipe on a Wednesday night?
What do you think about this? Will AI spur massive job loss? There are naysayers who think otherwise. I believe it will, as our current system rewards CEOs for profitability, and they won’t think twice about shedding thousands of employees if it will bring a precious few extra pennies per share in next quarter’s earnings report.
And if this job loss does come to pass – how will we finance the transformation of our economy and our lives?
Godspeed, friends.
Russ
🤔 Think About It
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." Franklin D. Roosevelt
The "C" Word
Sharp-thinking reader Dave Morris provided another C word to last week's post on the corruption of our President: Clemency.
Says Dave, "Kudos for the Sesame Street setup - the letter C theme and the "corruption bundle." I love it! One possible addition: Clemency - Pardons and commutations that are clearly rewards for loyalty, wealth, and/or political usefulness. That's a C for the Corruption Collection!"
Great addition, Dave – On the grading scale of this story, we'll give it our highest mark, a C+!
🙈 Why Seeing Is No Longer Believing
What happens when the world's leading authority on deepfakes is no longer certain of what he's seeing? Check out this free article from the New York Times about Hany Farid, our time's preeminent expert in digital forensics. You'll find this read utterly chilling.
Please Use AI
Poetry fans, rejoice! We haven't shared a poem in awhile here. Just perfect for this issue, seeing as how I referenced AI and recipes in my lead story and then, BAM – look what the universe drops into my lap: a gift from the poetry gods as Pennsylvania poet Shawn Smucker captures what's at stake for humanity. I'm presenting just the first stanza of the poem, below – if you'd like to read the poem in its entirety you can do that here.
