Majority of U.S. workers support AI fund amid tech layoffs: survey
Digitally rendered image of young man in empty black space with semi-reflective backdrop, surrounded by multi-color translucent data displays.
Andriy Onufriyenko | An | Getty Images
Amid dissatisfaction with the rising number of layoffs in the tech sector despite overall corporate profits being high, a majority of U.S. workers now want to hold companies more accountable through an AI sovereign wealth fund, according to a recent survey.
national survey Research firm Verasight’s survey of 1,690 adults, conducted in June and published earlier this month, suggests that 69 percent of Americans now support “forcing” AI firms to divest 50 percent of their shares to a public wealth fund.
“In the public eye, AI Sovereign funds are seen as a means to distribute gains from the AI industry to the broader society,” said Benjamin Leff, CEO of Verasight.
Senator Bernie Sanders in June recommended American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, which, if passed, would give the public a 50% stake in the largest AI companies in the US.
“It will ensure that the economic benefits created by artificial intelligence are used to improve the lives of all of us, not just to make the world’s richest people even richer,” Sanders said last month.
“The future of artificial intelligence and the fate of humanity should not be decided behind closed doors in Silicon Valley by billionaires looking to maximize their power and profits,” Sanders said.
As companies continue to increase capital spending for the expansion of artificial intelligence, the number of layoffs in the tech sector in the US has left many workers frustrated and concerned about job security.
Goldman Sachs Senior Global Economist Joseph Briggs estimates that more than 9 percent of the workforce, or about 15 million workers, could lose their jobs during the 10-year AI transition period. report It was published last month.
This “could be the kind of automation and reallocation shock we saw in the late ’90s and early 2000s and other periods of significant technological change.” Briggs said.
“However [Briggs] “It is believed that these losses will be temporary due to the expectation that artificial intelligence will create many new jobs in the long term, even if it destroys existing ones,” the Goldman Sachs report said.
Sovereign wealth funds can serve in multiple roles when it comes to artificial intelligence. According to the research firm, they can lead the development of AI at the national level by financing capital-intensive AI infrastructure, take stock in AI companies, and capture a share of AI-driven economic gains for the public treasury. Unexpected Trust.
However, sovereign wealth funds may also face challenges in management amid the public interest and the global race to develop AI capabilities.
“There is also a tension between the financial mandate (maximizing returns for citizens) and the strategic mandate (building national AI capacity, maintaining influence on border systems), as these goals can conflict when the best financial investment is a foreign AI company rather than a domestic AI company,” Windfall Trust said. he added.
