The International Monetary Fund has proposed a way to improve the effects of AI: A tax on carbon dioxide emissions created to generate lots of energy to power the computers that many hope will do a thing for us.
📣📣 IMF WARNING 👉 Deep inequality from AI
That proposal appeared Monday in a discussion note titled: "Broadening the Gains from Generative AI: The Role of Fiscal Policies."
The thrust of the paper is that generative AI has enormous potential to improve productivity, but it can also bring about less pleasant change. Automation can bring radical changes to the world of work and/or damage national balance sheets, as fewer workers are required and taxes are reduced.
The paper also notes that previous waves of automation have generally displaced low- and medium-skill jobs involving routine tasks, but generative AI's capabilities are more sophisticated than previous automation technologies — "potentially exacerbating job losses in cognitive occupations. Consequently, labor's share of national income may decline further, exacerbating income and wealth disparities."
