The Government should introduce a tax on large companies which use artificial intelligence to replace workers, an MP has said, over fears about the impact on employment and tax revenues.
Neil Duncan-Jordan (Poole) said the proposed measure would help replace income tax and national insurance sums that would be lost from the Treasury under the increased use of AI in the workplace.
The Independent MP added it would also potentially disincentivise the large-scale replacement of people with machines.
Analysts at jobs website Indeed have said UK university graduates are facing the toughest job market since 2018, with increased use of AI further narrowing down opportunities, in a report earlier this year.
Meanwhile, adverts for an AI company were seen on the London Underground this summer, urging commuters to “stop hiring humans, the era of AI employees is here”.
He told the PA news agency: “This is not about somebody who uses AI to produce an itinerary for a meeting they’re having. This is about large scale use of AI which reduces employment prospects for workers in the long term.
“It’s about companies who used to employ 100 people to do a particular job don’t employ anybody any more. We would lose the national insurance from the employee and the employer, obviously, we would also lose the income tax from the employee.
“The company would be massively gaining from that, so it was an idea of how do you try to balance the loss of income that AI could bring, with the company’s desire to lay off workers.
“It shouldn’t be seen as a zero-sum option that they have, to think ‘we can just do this and make loads of profit off the backs of people we’ve made unemployed’.”
Mr Duncan-Jordan had the Labour whip withdrawn earlier this year, along with three colleagues, after he rebelled against the Government’s welfare reforms.
On Tuesday the Treasury dismissed his proposal to introduce a national insurance equivalent for each “AI agent” that performs tasks previously done by a person.
Treasury minister Dan Tomlinson had said: “Employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) are charged based on employee earnings. As AI agents do not receive earnings, it is not clear on what basis employer NICs would be levied.”
However, the MP said any tax should be seen as a levy rather than a direct mirror of national insurance, which was first established in 1911 to act as a social security system for workers.
Mr Duncan-Jordan said his former job as a Unison regional officer had made him concerned for AI’s impact on jobs.
He said: “I’m very very conscious of needing to have that proper balance in the workplace between the use of widespread automation, AI, and protecting jobs and careers. AI’s not just a blue collar threat, it’s a white collar threat too. It’s across the piece, and everyone should be concerned about that.”
Polling published by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in August found more than half of UK adults are worried about the impact of AI on their job.
The chief executive of BT warned earlier this year that AI could lead to more job cuts at the telecoms firm.
Internationally Microsoft and Amazon have laid off thousands of workers as the tech companies shift towards spending on AI.
Mr Duncan-Jordan said: “This idea is not anti-business, it’s not anti-technology.
“It’s about recognising that we have to be the masters of the technological revolution, not the other way round.
“We have to be in control of that revolution, otherwise it will take us over, and then we will see lots of people being laid off, and then wondering why our revenues have gone down as a state and lots of people aren’t working.”
He continued: “I’m really keen that [AI’s] impact on society is positive rather than negative, and that’s why things like AI levies, employment levies, whatever we call them, are considered, yeah, as a way of mitigating against wholesale introduction, without any protections.
“I’m not saying, don’t bring it in. Let’s have a serious, grown up debate about the impact that that’s going to have on our society, on our workforce, on our income.”
