OpenAI has released a policy document urging governments to fundamentally rethink economic structures as artificial intelligence continues to transform the global economy. The company outlined "initial ideas" on Monday to mitigate the disruption AI is bringing to the United States and global markets.
One of the major proposals is the creation of a public wealth fund that would provide all citizens with a stake in AI-driven economic growth. According to the document, this fund would invest in diversified, long-term assets capturing growth in both AI companies and broader companies adopting the technology, with returns distributed directly to citizens.
OpenAI also suggests governments should incentivize companies to launch four-day workweek pilot programs with "no loss in pay," using productivity gains from AI to benefit workers. The company recommends modernizing tax systems to increase taxation on corporate income and capital gains rather than labor income, which could be affected by AI-related job losses. The proposals include considering a tax when companies use automated instead of human labor, sometimes referred to as a "robot tax."
The policy document also suggests building portable benefit systems for retirement pensions and healthcare that would follow people across jobs, industries, and entrepreneurial ventures. This comes as tech leaders including xAI's Elon Musk and OpenAI's Sam Altman have advocated for universal basic income, while others like Nvidia's Jensen Huang have supported shorter work weeks due to AI productivity gains.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, in a separate January essay, warned about the existential dangers of superintelligent AI and suggested controlling exports of key technologies like semiconductor chips used to train large language models.