Investor David Sacks, President Donald Trump's artificial intelligence czar, is back in the spotlight after blasting the idea of universal basic income and warning against global efforts to regulate AI. He says the growing enthusiasm for UBI is more political fiction than serious policy.
Sacks: The Left’s AI Fantasy Involves “Everyone on Welfare”
“The future of AI has become a Rorschach test where everyone sees what they want,” Sacks posted on X on June 3. “The Left envisions a post-economic order in which people stop working and instead receive government benefits. In other words, everyone on welfare. This is their fantasy; it's not going to happen.”
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Sacks argues that concerns about mass job loss from AI are overblown and being used as a tool to expand state control. In a June 1 post, he claimed that former President Barack Obama's AI job-loss warnings are part of a broader “influence operation” to push for “Global AI Governance,” which he called a “massive power grab by the bureaucratic state and globalist institutions.”
He warned that combining AI with centralized power could result in “the most Orwellian future imaginable.”
A Clash Of AI Visions
Sacks’ remarks come in stark contrast to those of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who has championed UBI as a realistic response to AI-driven economic shifts. In a May 2024 interview on the “All-In” podcast, hosted, among others, by Sacks, Altman proposed that everyone could receive “a slice of GPT,” meaning access to AI computing power that they could use, sell, or donate. He believes this model could help fund UBI.
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Altman argued that existing government programs haven't done much to reduce poverty. “I’m not a super fan of how the government has handled most policies designed to help poor people,” he said. “I kind of believe that if you could just give people money, they would make good decisions, and the market would do its thing.”
While Altman acknowledged that UBI wouldn’t solve all problems, he said it might improve quality of life and provide a “better horizon with which to help themselves.”
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has echoed the idea of UBI—but with warnings. Speaking at the 2024 VivaTech conference, Musk said, “In a benign scenario, probably none of us will have a job. But in that benign scenario, there will be universal high income, not universal base income, and there will be no shortage of goods or services.”
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Musk believes AI and automation will create abundance, making it possible for everyone to access what they need. But he also raised deeper concerns: “If you’re not needed, if there’s not a need for your labor, how do you find meaning? Do you feel useless?” he asked.
For Musk, the economic side of UBI is manageable, but the psychological toll of widespread joblessness may be the real challenge.
For Sacks, however, UBI isn’t an economic idea but a political agenda wrapped in AI hype. “WokeAI + Global AI Governance = the most Orwellian future imaginable,” he warned.
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