[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Is the rise of AI the best argument for universal basic income?

[Robert Primak]

 Fascinating interview.
AI will do to workers what:
Direct dialing did to telephone operators.Word processors and desktop PCs and Macs did to secretaries and later, administrative assistants.Digital sampling did to session artists (musicians).Digital video creation programs did to professional animators. Computers did to the women who originally calculated gunnery tables by hand.
And so on. 
Nobody got compensation, no one got universal income, not everyone went on Welfare, and people were not dying in the streets.Workers upgraded their skill sets, the same way construction workers learned to work with power tools, and the same way farmers learned to use personal and business computers, complete with ag-centric  weather forecasting models. The smart workers quickly adapted, and even the least intelligent or least talented found something useful and pay-worthy to do for a living. (Crypto-mining and Social Media influencing don't count.)Similarly, older drivers are learning how to drive cars with today's auto tech innovations and distractions. (Though the newer, brighter LED headlights are placing a real strain on some of us.)
Universal income serves to make sure no one needs to be homeless even when they are working full-time. It serves to provide health care and food security to everyone, regardless or status in (or out of) the workforce. Universal income is not a substitute for upgrading workers' skill sets so as to keep these skill sets relevant to the way work is done today, and tomorrow and tomorrow. 
Now let's discuss universal access to free post-secondary education and skills training, aka free community college for all. We aren't farmers in the 1800's anymore, with a need for only an eighth-grade education.
-- Bob Primak 

    On Wednesday, September 18, 2024 at 04:40:29 PM EDT, Peter Albin via LCTG <lctg at lists.toku.us> wrote:  
 
 This interview is from September 12, 2023 but is still relevant.

https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2023/09/12/is-the-rise-of-ai-the-best-argument-for-universal-basic-income

Peter

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