Joseph Stiglitz on how to build a better AI economy / Financial Times

Financial Times: Whether our macroeconomic tools and the public officials who wield them are up to sustaining growth is unclear. They did not do well when the small tech bubble broke in 2000, and failed miserably with the bursting of the housing bubble in 2007. Ultimately, the profits of the AI companies rest on consumer demand — and that will be weak in an economy with large numbers unemployed and with growing inequality. How can a “jobless” economy be a good economy? 

My Opinion: The AI and total economy is dependent on consumer and business demand. If AI results in unemployment, the consumer demand will collapse. The fates of the AI and other companies and consumers are intertwined.

It might be in the interest of individual companies to reduce employment, but when you consider the entire economy it is in their interest to keep people employed. Or mantain their purchasing power by other ways. People must have money to spend, to sustain businesses and the economy. So basic income can substitute for jobs, for those unable to work.

Reference: Joseph Stiglitz on how to build a better AI economy / Financial Times