Artificial Intelligence: Enriching or Interfering?

Dear Andrew Yang and the Yang Gang:

The power of AI can be scary. We largely live in a knowledge economy where knowledge/information/data is power. AI can do things that we never dreamed of and things the average bear doesn’t understand. Have you ever played chess on an airplane against a computer? I’m willing to bet you weren’t able to win. Even Garry Kasparov, a grandmaster and world chess champion, who challenged the entire world to a chess game and won, has lost to computers in games of chess. Pictured below is chess grandmaster Kramnik, who took Kasparov’s world champ title in 2000, losing the game he makes millions playing… to a robot.

Automation is not to be feared, only harnessed and controlled. My friend Adam Taylor has put it this way, “...the "ocean of data" that we see coming out of our devices has always been there. Everything in the universe has been producing data and "talking to us," we just recently developed the technology to listen.” With new tech, we can now “listen” to things we couldn't hear before, like billions upon billions of chess board permutations. We can choose to ignore this ocean, let it drown us, or harness its power for the good of humanity. Embracing the power of AI will increase GDP and be a net gain for society (“Job Loss Due to AI - How Bad Is It Going to Be?”).

The downside of AI comes from job displacement, especially of labor workers. This is a very legitimate concern that we need to address before it’s too late, especially with the advent of things like Tesla’s new self-driving semi’s set to hit the roads in 2020. However as shown above, artificial intelligence is at the point where it can perform strategic, analytical processes with astounding skill. It's only a matter of time before chess becomes surgery, financial planning, engineering etc. The threat of job displacement is high for occupations across the board, even white collar jobs like accountants (for example, just type in any job title in this website). We need to do more than wait to reform this issue once the damage is done. We need to have proactive legislation that prevents catostrophic job loss.

As part of a proactive solution, you have proposed a “Freedom Dividend” of $1000 for all U.S. citizens regardless of their socioeconomic standing. This is a step in the right direction, but can be even more effective. As AI grows stronger and more capable, the wealth gap will only grow, leaving those without jobs in the dust. For this reason, I urge you to modify your Freedom dividend to a negative income tax. The downside of the Freedom Dividend is that it will inflate every consumer’s income equally. Businesses facing such increased consumer demand will simply increase their prices, with the rich angrily still being able to pay, while the middle and lower class struggle to get by. A negative income tax would prevent this from happening by only subsidizing the select group of people who are below a certain level of income. It would be a more efficient way to use scarce funds on those who need it the most.

Some staunch capitalists have compared the Fourth Industrial Revolution to the first three claiming there is nothing to worry about and the free market will work itself out. I consider myself pretty staunch capitalist, but I think there are things we can do to quicken work of the invisible hand. Industrialization during the First Industrial Revolution moved workers to NEW jobs, while the AI revolution will not provide new jobs fast enough for those whose jobs become automated.







Bibliography

“Job Loss Due to AI - How Bad Is It Going to Be?” Skynet Today, Skynet Today, 4 Feb. 2019, www.skynettoday.com/editorials/ai-automation-job-loss.