🤖 AI and the rise of universal basic income

Good morning and welcome to the latest issue of neonpulse!

Here are the AI headlines making waves:

🌊  Leveraging productivity with AI

🌊 The rise of Universal Basic Income

Let’s get into it!

Leveraging AI

After experimenting with AI for only 2 months, UK based company Octopus Energy has already found a way to get AI to do the work of 250 people.

Starting off by training virtual customer service agents with ChatGPT, not only did the company find that AI was able to generate faster responses to customer questions…

But they were shocked to find that the responses of the AI customer service agents were far superior to those created by humans.

"Emails written by AI delivered 80% customer satisfaction — comfortably better than the 65% achieved by skilled, trained people," said CEO Greg Jackson.

And while Jackson stated that AI was unlikely to lead to job cuts at his company, as he is currently focused on finding ways to use the technology to boost the productivity of his existing workforce, he is very concerned about the impact that this new technology will have on the world.

“I’m very worried about AI,” said Jackson. “This is a huge threat to employment and society, and governments need to act.”

Many companies will certainly follow in the footsteps of Octopus Energy, hunting for opportunities to use AI to boost worker productivity in the short term, yet as the technology continues to evolve, AI will undoubtedly replace many jobs entirely.

A recent Goldman Sachs report estimated that as many as 300 million jobs will be replaced by AI, leading many to worry about what the world will look like in a economy where hundreds of millions of humans are no longer needed.

The Case For UBI

Given that there is a strong likelihood that millions of people will lose their jobs to AI, is there anything that we can do to soften the blow?

Well if you listen to Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind (Google’s AI research laboratory), he believes that there is only one solution…

That governments worldwide will need to implement a system of Universal Basic Income (UBI) in order to provide for displaced workers.

By implementing UBI and providing a basic level of income to every person, Suleyman believes we will be able to “redistribute the wealth that AI and other technologies will generate, ensuring that everyone benefits."

But implementing UBI is not without its challenges, with many critics arguing that it could disincentivize work, while others worry about the incredible cost of providing everyone a regular income.

Suleyman acknowledges these concerns but remains confident in the idea, asserting that "a carefully crafted UBI could serve as a tool to prevent poverty and provide economic stability."

Other tech luminaries including Elon Musk, OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman, and Mark Zuckerberg have also voiced support for UBI, viewing it as a necessary measure in the face of rapid technological advancement.

And despite the potential for AI to replace millions of workers in the short term, Suleyman remains optimistic about the future of AI and its impact on society.

"AI has the potential to solve some of the world's most challenging problems," he said. "However, we must ensure it's harnessed in a way that benefits everyone."

For a more in depth analysis of how AI could contribute to UBI, you can check out OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s blog post on the subject here.

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And now your moment of zen

That’s all for today folks! We hope you enjoyed today’s newsletter, and we’ll see you bright and early tomorrow!