South Korea Floats 'Citizen Dividend' Using AI Profits
- Reference: 0183200009
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/26/05/12/2021240/south-korea-floats-citizen-dividend-using-ai-profits
- Source link:
> Presidential policy chief Kim Yong-beom said in a Facebook post that a portion of the profits and tax revenue derived from the artificial intelligence boom "should be structurally returned to all citizens." That is because, Mr Kim argued, the economic gains from AI are based at least partly on industrial infrastructure built by the country over five decades. Mr Kim's comments come after tens of thousands of people gathered outside Samsung's main chip hub in April to demand employees get a greater share of AI profits. The company's labour union wants 15 per cent of operating profit handed to chip-division employees.
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> The union has threatened an 18-day strike starting May 21. Workers have pointed to rising payouts at SK Hynix, which in 2025 agreed to allocate 10 per cent of its annual operating profit to a performance bonus pool, as evidence they deserve more pay. "Excess profits in the AI era are, by nature, concentrated," Mr Kim wrote. Memory companies, core engineers and asset holders are highly likely to receive substantial benefits, while much of the middle class may experience only indirect effects.
[1] https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/south-korea-floats-citizen-dividend-using-ai-profits
The Profits should be competed away (Score:2)
As other companies sell the same things and all of them compete the price down. Of course the software industry has done a great job of preventing this from happening; Microsoft and Apple ensure that operating systems haven't got cheaper etc. etc. By contrast the crippling of the US car industry by foreign companies demonstrates how even the most apparently secure can be humbled, and the fading of such past giants as IBM is similarly a warning.
Re: (Score:2)
Foreign automakers sell better products at better prices. The US industry shot itself in the foot because they see the short term dollar signs selling $100k trucks that never leave pavement. Gas hit $5 a gallon here and the domestic companies are tooling up to sell the new 2027 6000 SUX.
Re: The Profits should be competed away (Score:2)
It's more that they have seen they can count on protectionism. Which ironically they also hate because it subjects them to dealers
Re: The Profits should be competed away (Score:2)
An OS costs under $200 in 2026 dollars.
Seems to have gotten pretty cheap.
Re: The Profits should be competed away (Score:2)
Are you kidding man? Apple hardware has never been cheaper and the os is included.
Agreed (Score:2)
> ... a portion of the profits and tax revenue derived from the artificial intelligence boom "should be structurally returned to all citizens. ... the economic gains from AI are based at least partly on industrial infrastructure built by the country over five decades.
AIs were trained on information generated by people. Where's our (collective) dividend? What's our benefit? And being made redundant, after training our AI replacement, doesn't count. Granted, some people created more information than others, but everyone played some part. For example. the guy cutting a researcher's lawn allowed the the latter to spend more tome and concentration on his work.
> Mr Kim wrote. Memory companies, core engineers and asset holders are highly likely to receive substantial benefits, while much of the middle class may experience only indirect effects.
That's going to work out for the former only so long, before the rest of the people tire of cake.
the US could learn a thing or two from SK (Score:1)
can you imagine trump up there declaring to pay everyone a public dividend for the data centers that have been shat all over our country?
Re: (Score:2)
> can you imagine trump up there declaring to pay everyone a public dividend for the data centers that have been shat all over our country?
Is that likeTrump promising [1]$2,000 tafiff dividend payments [abcnews.com]?
[1] https://abcnews.com/Business/trumps-promise-2000-tariff-dividend-payments/story?id=127373376
Wealth redistribution? (Score:2)
People talk about it like it's a Commie plot, but if we don't even out the inequality at least a little, it's gonna be bad for the economy and bad for all of us.
fuck ai sayo! (Score:2)
When the bubble collapses, are they going to bill everybody?
Re: fuck ai sayo! (Score:3)
I think the concept is that if a company announces mass layoffs because AI yountax them per employee.
I assume what would actually happen is honesty in layoffs, notbtax revenue.
Re: (Score:3)
If you punish companies for firing, you get less hiring.
Countries with inflexible labor markets tend to have higher unemployment.
Re: fuck ai sayo! (Score:2)
But better quality of life overall for regular folks.
Re: fuck ai sayo! (Score:2)
How do you decide if a job was lost due to AI? What happens when this generation dies and the next generation cannot fathom that some specific work was done without AI and therefore has to now be compensated?
AI or no AI there is a massive automation push (Score:3)
And it's going to result in permanent unemployment. It's debatable how much but we're not ever going to see full employment ever again. Not with this much automation.
To be thoroughly honest we are cooking the books using sub minimum wage gig work to pretend that we aren't already well below full employment. I don't know South Korea's numbers but here in America there is only one good job for every five americans. A good job here being defined as paying enough that you can afford a modest house, reliable