EDITORIAL: AI and UBI
Published 12:30 pm Thursday, October 16, 2025
Artificial Intelligence.
It's a subject that has fascinated humanity for decades (at least), from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Oddity.
Overwhelmingly, the theme of fictional speculation has been dystopian (think: The Terminator, The Matrix etc.), in which humanity is overtaken by and forced to fight back against its new artificial overlords.
It makes sense. A utopian version of a future in which dispassionate machines are simply better at everything than their human counterparts doesn't really make for compelling fiction.
There are, of course, outliers. Star Trek envisioned a future for humanity in which people, freed from the bonds of having to work to make a living, could instead engage in more fulfilling activities, such as exploring the universe.
But that only worked because it was the background to all the conflict they encountered exploring strange new worlds, seeking out new life and new civilizations, boldly going where no one had gone before.
It was all fine and good, as long as it was fiction.
It is no longer fiction.
There is no scientific consensus on how long it will be before AI is better than us at pretty much everything, but a comprehensive survey of the world's top AI researchers paints a grim picture for human employment over the next 50 to 100 years.
Most of us can already envision what we would do if we didn't have to work (music, arts, sports, travel, etc.). In fact, many of us already do those things on a limited basis, but we are only able to because we have income because we work.
As more and more people are displaced by AI, it's a problem that needs to be solved or we are in for the dystopian version.
Even some of the world's richest plutocrats have advanced the idea of a universal basic income (UBI).
Bill Gates has suggested robots should be taxed.
Elon Musk is on record as advocating for not just a basic income, but a universal high income, envisioning that the wealth generated by an AI-dominated economy can provide for everyone.
Very Star Trekian, but with the acceleration of technological advancement, we need action, not suggestions and advocacy.
