Geoffrey Hinton, often referred to as the "AI godfather," advises to introduce a universal basic income to cope with the impact of AI on inequality between people. This was reported by BBC.
According to him, a reform of social benefits that provides a fixed amount of cash for each citizen will be necessary, as he is “very worried about AI taking lots of mundane jobs”.
“I was consulted by people in Downing Street and I advised them that universal basic income was a good idea,” Geoffrey Hinton said.
He believes that AI will increase productivity and welfare. But the money would go to the rich “and not the people whose jobs get lost and that’s going to be very bad for society”.
The concept of a universal basic income is to pay all citizens a set salary regardless of their wealth.
Critics say it would be extremely expensive and divert funding from public services, without necessarily reducing poverty.
Dr. Hinton was a pioneer in the field of AI. Last year, it became known that he had resigned from Google and spoke out about the risks associated with artificial intelligence.
By the way, recently, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said that AI is hitting the global labor market "like a tsunami." According to her, in the next two years, artificial intelligence is likely to affect 60% of jobs in developed countries and 40% of jobs worldwide.