Britain’s investment minister has revealed there are talks within government about introducing a universal basic income to support workers in industries likely to be wiped out by AI.
Lord Jason Stockwood, who joined the government in September after a career in tech, told the FT he believed that “bumpy” changes to society caused by AI would mean there would have “to be some sort of concessionary arrangement with jobs that go immediately”.
“Undoubtedly we’re going to have to think really carefully about how we soft-land those industries that go away, so some sort of [universal basic income], some sort of life-long mechanism as well so people can retrain,” he said.