Elon Musk calls to address AI-driven unemployment with government payments

Billionaire Elon Musk has supported the idea of providing a steady income to people who lose their jobs due to artificial intelligence.

He believes that regular, large government payments could help address unemployment caused by the adoption of AI.

"Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government is the best way to deal with unemployment caused by AI.", he wrote on X.

Musk also argued that such a policy would not lead to inflation, stating that "AI/robotics will produce goods & services far in excess of the increase in the money supply, so there will not be inflation".

However, these “checks” would not qualify as universal basic income. By definition, UBI involves regular payments of a fixed amount from the state to every member of a given population, regardless of income.