Universal Basic Income seems to be the most neutral and efficient tool to handle the unknown upheavals the use of artificial intelligence and robots will bring.

Sir, Rana Foroohar writes: “A McKinsey Global Institute report out on Wednesday shows that, while digitalisation has the potential to boost productivity and growth, it may also hold back demand if it compresses labour’s share of income and increases inequality.” “Why workers need a ‘digital New Deal’” February 19.

That sure seems to make the case for a Universal Basic Income, a Social Dividend, both from a social fairness angle and from the perspective of market efficiency.

To preempt that really unknown challenge at hand, Foroohar proposes something she names “the 25 percent solution” based on how Germany tackled an entirely different problem, the financial crisis. What it entails makes me suspect it could risk reducing the growth and productivity that could be achieved, and waste so much of the resources used to manage the consequences, so that only 25 percent, or less, of the potential benefits of having artificial intelligence and robots working for us would be obtained.

I worry sufficiently about a possible new Chinese curse of “May your grandchildren live with 3rd class robots and dumb artificial intelligence”; to also have to add “May your grandchildren have to serve the huge debt derived from technocrats defending your generation from artificial intelligence and robots.

Sir, I had more than enough of besserwissers trying to defend us and when doing so causing much more harm. Like when regulators, full of hubris, promised “We will make your bank system safer with our risk weighted capital requirements for banks”.

http://myubi.blogspot.ca/2017/01/my-universal-basic-income.html

@PerKurowski

More intelligent but less uncontrollable, or dumber and more controllable robots, that is the real tough question

Sir, you write “some researchers have called for greater “robot transparency” — safeguards to ensure that humans can always grasp what the most sophisticated machines are doing, and why… Robots can help people with their work and unleash social and economic benefits. But they must be trusted, or the humans will vote to take back control”, “Intelligent robots must be trusted by humans” August 5.

Sir, what do you prefer, more intelligent but less uncontrollable or dumber and more controllable robots?

What are we to do if controlling our intelligent robots makes these weaker than those of our future enemies, whoever these will be?

I ask this because the revised version of that Chinese curse that holds "may your children live in interesting times", could very easily be, may your children lived surrounded by 3rd class robots and dumb artificial intelligence. 

So even if “The era in which robots might redesign themselves constantly and advance beyond human understanding, is far into the future” their education, like that of the humans, might very well start in quite early childhood. 

http://perkurowski.blogspot.se/2017/02/here-some-disorderly-lose-cannon.html

@PerKurowski

My Industrial Policy would be to try having the best robots, and the most intelligent artificial intelligence

Sir, I refer to Rana Foroohar’s “Wanted: an industrial policy for America” May 8.

The 2007/08 financial crisis resulted from excessive exposures to what had been perceived, decreed or concocted as safe, those assets which therefore regulators allowed banks to hold against very little capital. Examples: the AAA rated securities backed with mortgages to the subprime sector and loans to sovereigns like Greece.

That should have been more than enough proof that, distorting the allocation of bank credit to the real economy with risk weighted capital requirements for banks, was not the way to go. But they all left it at that. As a consequence, only because they were as “risky” discriminated against by bank regulators, perhaps hundred of thousands SMEs and entrepreneurs have since then gotten their requests for bank credit rejected, or priced much higher. So Foroohar’s referencing an “Obama administration playbook” as especially favorable to job creation, sounds way out of place.

Yes, it is great that any government focuses its interest on job creation, but sometimes it must also give considerable thought to what to do if those jobs are nowhere to be found. That is why some years ago I wrote: “We need worthy and decent unemployments”.

I am against protectionism but, at this particular moment, if it were up to me, I would protect all learning and developing opportunities that could help my grandchildren to have access to the absolutely best robots and absolutely most intelligent artificial intelligence.

That is because if they don’t have it, they will benefit less or, in order to compete, have to work much harder for less than others.

That is because the Chinese curse “May your children live in interesting times”, might soon be upgraded to “May your grandchildren live surrounded by 3rd class robots, and dumb artificial intelligence”. 

PS. Sir, my granddaughters are Canadian so this message is in fact directed more to Mr. Trudeau than to Mr Trump.

PS. Again, please FT you who are so without fear, dare to ask regulators the questions below and dare learn the truth.

http://subprimeregulations.blogspot.com/2016/12/must-one-go-on-hunger-strike-to-have.html

PS. Then in 2023 I discovered OpenAI – ChatGPT. And boy could artificial intelligence help empower a citizens’ democracy. That is if, of course, if #AI regulators allow it. It could endanger their current Bureaucracy Autocracy.

 

@PerKurowski

Bore where are you?

Well here we are the day after the Fed announced the “what do the fed know that we do not know” 50bp rate cut to which the market responded with their own “what does the market know that the Fed does not know” too large jump in the value of stock and it all just reminds us about the truth of the Chinese curse “may you live in interesting times”. Now let us all please hurry back to the big bore.