‘Universal basic income’, a dystopian vision in AI-era

New Delhi: As Artificial Intelligence (AI) begins to crack even pure mathematics, homegrown tech company Zoho's founder Sridhar Vembu has rejected the idea of 'universal basic income', dubbing it a "unimaginative and dystopian" vision of the intellect-worshipping modern man. In a post on X on Monday, he said most intellectual jobs, including much of software, appear to be at risk. But humans, he argued, have endless tasks to do: restoring soil and water, raising children, caring for elders, making music, sustaining festivals and practising spiritual traditions. "Pure mathematics, the highest intellectual activity known to man, is falling to AI. It is a deeply humbling moment. At this point, I would assume that most 'intellectual jobs' are at risk. That includes much of software," he wrote. Living in a village, Vembu said, he is not worried about the "What will humans do" question.

"Humans have infinitely many things to do and I categorise those human activities as nature, nurture, culture and scripture: restoring soil and water, raising children and caring for elders, making music, sustaining festivals, sports and entertainment, studying and practising spiritual traditions," he said. Those activities can pay well in the sense of being able to afford the goods and services produced with near zero human labour. Vembu added: "I reject UBI (universal basic income) as an unimaginative and dystopian vision of the intellect-worshipping modern man". "The UBI future implicitly assumes monopolisation of the means of production and sovereign states already have the power to disallow monopolies," he wrote. Amid global debate on AI safety, threat to humanity, job losses and societal impact, as well as doomsday prophecies of catastrophic outcomes of AI, the concept of Universal Basic Income or Universal High Income is back in conversations. As AI moves from automating routine tasks to doing high-end cognitive work like coding, law, analysis and now advanced mathematics, some economists and tech leaders believe that wages from knowledge work will shrink faster than new jobs appear.

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