AI ‘godfather’ Geoffrey Hinton recommends UBI as AI takes jobs

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence has many people wondering what humanity will do once it becomes prevalent. 

If you ask Geoffrey Hinton, the “godfather of artificial intelligence,” he believes many will lose their jobs.

READ: How to use the ChatGPT app

That is why he recommended the UK government should implement universal basic income. Soon, UBI might become a necessity worldwide. 

AI ‘godfather’ Geoffrey Hinton and UBI

Britannica says Geoffrey Hinton is a British-Canadian cognitive psychologist and computer scientist known as the “godfather of AI.” 

In 1982, he joined the Carnegie Mellon University faculty. He worked with computer scientist Ronald J. Williams and psychologist David Rumelhart to lay the groundwork for neural network development. 

Ilya Sutskever, a co-founder of ChatGPT creator OpenAI, is one of Hinton’s graduate students. On the other hand, Investopedia defines universal basic income as: 

“A government program in which every adult citizen receives a set amount of money regularly.” 

The UBI amount per person does not change, regardless of social status or other factors. The Korea Times reported that South Korea tested UBI during the pandemic. 

Why would the world need UBI due to AI?

Geoffrey Hinton told BBC Newsnight that the United Kingdom would need UBI. He was “very worried about AI taking lots of mundane jobs.” 

“I was consulted by people in Downing Street and I advised them that universal basic income was a good idea,” the godfather of AI stated. 

AI would increase wealth and productivity. However, Hinton says the money would go to the rich, “and not the people whose jobs get lost, and that’s going to be very bad for society.”

British experts aren’t the only ones preparing for artificial intelligence’s impact. On the other side of the world, the age of artificial intelligence reignites South Korea’s interest in UBI. 

“Opinions can vary on whether AI will entirely diminish human jobs,” said Rep. Yong Hye-in of the minor opposition Basic Income Party. 

“However, the general agreement is that technology will replace traditional jobs while new jobs are emerging.”

“The job market is likely to become polarized, divided between low-wage roles that rely on human labor for cost-effectiveness and high-wage positions requiring specialized skills in fields like AI,” Hye-in added.

Artificial intelligence has transcended OpenAI and ChatGPT as more people outside the US are developing the technology. Thus, all countries must prepare for its inevitable global impact.