AI’s Job Takeover Could End Money as We Know It: Is Universal Income the Answer?
AI job disruption sparks debate on universal income to share tech-driven wealth.
The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to reshape economies, but its promise of material abundance raises critical questions about equitable distribution, according to a thought-provoking analysis published on August 19, 2025. As AI threatens to render millions of jobs obsolete, the traditional market model—built on scarcity and the necessity of work to earn income—faces disruption. This tension mirrors Australia’s food economy, where 7.6 million tonnes of food are wasted annually while one in eight Australians remain food-insecure due to insufficient income.
Economist Lionel Robbins defined economics as managing scarce resources against endless wants, but AI’s potential to create abundance challenges this framework. Without paid work, how will individuals access necessities in a market-driven system? The COVID-19 pandemic offered a glimpse of a solution: enhanced government benefits in Australia and cash payments in over 200 countries significantly reduced poverty, suggesting that a universal basic income (UBI) could bridge the gap in an AI-driven future.
The Australian Basic Income Lab, a collaboration between Macquarie University, the University of Sydney, and the Australian National University, is exploring UBI as a mechanism to share AI’s benefits. Researchers Elise Klein and James Ferguson advocate for UBI not as welfare but as a “rightful share” of humanity’s collective technological achievements, akin to a nation’s natural resources. This concept echoes historical debates, from early 20th-century Britain’s response to industrialization to the Luddites’ resistance to wage-suppressing machines.
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Alternatively, UK author Aaron Bastani proposes “universal basic services” (UBS), providing essentials like healthcare, education, and transport directly, rather than through cash payments. This approach would require socializing AI’s applications to prioritize collective needs. However, as Peter Frase notes, AI alone won’t guarantee utopia; without political intervention, the concentration of technological power in the hands of billionaires risks a “technofeudalism,” where markets and democracy give way to authoritarian control.
The stakes are high. Australia’s experience with food waste and insecurity underscores the challenge of distributing abundance equitably. As AI reshapes the economic landscape, solutions like UBI or UBS could redefine how society shares the fruits of technological progress, ensuring that the future benefits all, not just a privileged few.
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