Overview

• The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board criticized Elon Musk’s support for universal basic income, calling it a bad idea and opening with “Oh, brother.”
• Recent reporting describes prominent tech figures envisioning AI-generated wealth funding large-scale redistribution, with UBI touted as a response to job displacement.
• Notable advocates and funders cited include Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Jack Dorsey, Chris Hughes, Marc Benioff, and Andrew Yang, reflecting renewed attention to cash programs.
• An op-ed in The Hill proposes using prospective AI-driven revenues to seed locked individual retirement accounts to ease pressure on Social Security rather than issuing monthly checks.
• Skeptics point to studies and pilots, including NBER research and Finland’s trial, that show limited employment gains and potential reductions in work hours, while noting unresolved legal and fiscal hurdles to reallocating private AI wealth.