Why are billionaires doing this instead of governments? It doesn't make sense.
Governments are supposed to protect workers, regulate industries, and make sure technology benefits everyone. Looks like billionaires and VCs who love monopolies are building the future on their terms.
They don't want to get eaten. We already had symbolic real assassinations of CEOs. It's only a matter of time. You can call it savagery, but you also can call it economics.
If you need to mitigate the danger quickly it's only prudent to try to do it yourself than to delegate to politicians you bought. Especially if you neglected the problem for so long.
That's why billionaires are talking about basic income before politicians do. They know the window for their survival is closing fast.
Bill Gates said that as countries get wealthier and automation replaces workers, UBI might become a viable option.
This is the same person who told OpenAI he'd invest between 1 and 10 billion of his company's money if they focused on ChatGPT and speeding up the development of autonomous AI workers.
Nice catch! You're the only one who spotted the similarity with Player Piano.
The first draft actually ended with this line: "Operating rooms without surgeons, computers without programmers, pianos without musicians." I took it out to make the reference less obvious, but after your message I added it back.
Each story I write includes a small tribute to a writer who's shaped the way I think, like Isaac Asimov or Kurt Vonnegut.
Governments are supposed to protect workers, regulate industries, and make sure technology benefits everyone. Looks like billionaires and VCs who love monopolies are building the future on their terms.