07/28/2023

How AI Companies' 'Windfall Profits' Could Fund a Universal Basic Income

Successful AI could result in unthinkable profits

There's a lot of money in artificial intelligence (AI). That's not just something that startup founders rushing to cash in on the latest fad believe; some very reputable economists are predicting a massive boom in productivity as AI use takes off, buoyed by empirical research showing tools like ChatGPT boost worker output.

But while previous tech founders such as Larry Page or Mark Zuckerberg schemed furiously to secure as much control over the companies they created as possible — and with it, the financial upside — AI founders are taking a different tack, and experimenting with novel corporate governance structures meant to force themselves to take nonmonetary considerations into account.

Demis Hassabis, the founder of DeepMind, sold his company to Google in 2014 only after the latter agreed to an independent ethics board that would govern how Google uses DeepMind’s research. (How much teeth the board has had in practice is debatable.)

Please select this link to read the complete article from Vox.