Who will buy your services if you fire us all? (carette.xyz)

Recently, prominent Silicon Valley figures like Sam Altman and Elon Musk have shifted their narrative surrounding artificial intelligence (AI), proposing concepts like Universal Basic Income (UBI) and shorter workweeks as pathways to a liberated society. This change follows a realization that widespread automation, while beneficial for corporations seeking to cut costs, also risks eliminating the consumer base necessary to sustain their products. If human jobs vanish, so too does the demand for AI services, creating a paradox that highlights the potential economic collapse of an overly automated society. The advocacy for UBI reflects a strategic response to this contradiction. By supplying displaced workers with cash to support their basic needs, tech elites aim to ensure continuous consumption of their offerings, effectively creating a cycle where the government acts as an intermediary to funnel money back into their corporate systems. This modern form of economic manipulation, reminiscent of historical labor exploitations, raises concerns about a future where citizens are trapped in a cycle of consumption within a monopolized tech economy. The pressing question remains: should society accept this conditional freedom, or instead demand a shared ownership of the wealth generated by automation, which is rooted in both the labor and creativity of the collective human experience?