{"id":996,"date":"2026-10-23T21:33:02","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T19:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wherewego.earth\/?p=996"},"modified":"2026-10-23T21:33:03","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T19:33:03","slug":"ai-global-universal-income-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wherewego.earth\/en\/2026\/10\/23\/ai-global-universal-income-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"AI could help fund a global basic income, but does not guarantee one"},"content":{"rendered":"

For artificial intelligence to help pay an income to every person on the planet, businesses producing more would not be enough. Some of those gains would have to fund a shared income. AI could contribute, but it has not been shown that it can sustain an adequate income for all of humanity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Universal does not mean enough to live on<\/h2>\n

The World Bank<\/a> defines universal basic income as a universal, unconditional cash transfer: it is not reserved for people who are unemployed or on low incomes.<\/p>\n

Here, we are talking about all of humanity, not just the residents of one country. It is also worth distinguishing between receiving a monthly supplement and having enough to cover basic needs. These are very different financial commitments.<\/p>\n

How AI could help<\/h2>\n

If AI enabled sustained increases in output, it could expand the resources available. But higher productivity does not automatically mean higher tax revenues<\/strong>: who receives the gains and how they are taxed matter.<\/p>\n

The authors of an IMF technical paper from June 2024<\/a> propose strengthening the taxation of capital income and reviewing tax incentives for automation. These are proposals, not an approved funding system.<\/p>\n

The paper also identifies opportunities to use AI to improve benefits administration and tax compliance, alongside privacy risks. It does not quantify savings capable of paying for a global income.<\/p>\n

The scale of the commitment<\/h2>\n

The UN estimated the world population at 8.2 billion in 2024<\/a>. Using that rounded historical figure, giving every person, including children, $100 a month would amount to $9.84 trillion a year<\/strong>. Giving $1,000 would raise the figure to $98.4 trillion. A trillion here means a million million.<\/p>\n

This is our own illustrative calculation: population \u00d7 monthly payment \u00d7 twelve. It does not estimate what AI will produce or use the exact population of 2026. These are gross transfers: they exclude administration and price adjustments, and do not subtract amounts recovered through taxes. Nor does the same amount buy the same things in every country.<\/p>\n

What pilot programmes do\u2014and do not\u2014show<\/h2>\n

Finland\u2019s 2017\u20132018 experiment offers a reference point. Its results, published in May 2020<\/a>, reported improvements in perceived well-being and financial security. However, it did not include the entire population or test the funding of a permanent income.<\/p>\n

As the World Bank guide cautions, pilot programmes cannot fully resolve questions such as inflation, funding or the relationship with other benefits. Testing what happens when some people receive money does not demonstrate how to sustain payments for everyone.<\/p>\n

Distribution matters as much as technology<\/h2>\n

An OECD microsimulation published in March 2018<\/a> found that, under the designs studied, a meaningful income would require substantial tax increases. Replacing targeted benefits could also harm some vulnerable households. This does not demonstrate that every form of universal income is unviable, but it does require examining who gains and who loses.<\/p>\n

At the global level, another condition arises: if the gains are concentrated in certain economies, sharing them with all of humanity would require international redistribution mechanisms.<\/p>\n

AI could provide resources and tools, but not decide how they are distributed. Before promising a monthly amount, agreement would be needed on who contributes, how continued payments are guaranteed, and which benefits and public services are preserved.<\/p>\n

Header image: AI-generated illustration.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Artificial intelligence could generate resources and make a universal income easier to administer. But guaranteeing an income for all of humanity would require stable funding, redistribution and agreements that technology alone cannot secure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wherewego.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wherewego.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wherewego.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wherewego.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wherewego.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=996"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wherewego.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":997,"href":"https:\/\/wherewego.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996\/revisions\/997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wherewego.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wherewego.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wherewego.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wherewego.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}