The call for a Universal Basic Income (UBI) to counter the looming danger of job displacement by AI automation has been made by Geoffrey Hinton, the acclaimed Godfather of AI.
Hinton, who recently left his position at Google in order to speak more openly about risks associated with AI, stressed that when it comes to artificial intelligence revolution, it would be mainly for the rich leaving many employees unemployed and exacerbating societal disparities.
“I was consulted by people in Downing Street,” said Hinton, “and I advised them that universal basic income was a good idea,” Hinton told BBC during an interview.
Sam Altman, OpenAI co-founder and former student of Hinton shares similar worries. Altman is advocating for UBI and is heading the Worldcoin project which aims at giving free cryptocurrency tokens to anyone who signs up and gets a retinal scan.
Both Hinton and Altman had raised concerns not only on job losses but also on the existential threat caused by advanced AI systems. According to Hinton there is a 50% chance within 20 years from now civilization will have come face-to-face with ‘take over’ attempts being made by AIs as he puts it.
