Picture is of a dining-bus in Paris! I was rushing to grab a pic before it took off….
One of the only ways to sell government funding of artificial intelligence to citizens is through the promise and deliverance of real, visible benefits. That could be Universal Basic Income. It could also mean heavy subsidies for essentials, reduced utility and education costs, or even large-scale debt reduction that directly improves citizens’ lives.
People will not accept their tax money being used to accelerate automation that threatens their jobs unless they share tangibly in the upside. Public investment in AI must yield public dividends.
The Altman Moment
OpenAI’s recent controversy illustrates the tension perfectly.
When CFO Sarah Friar mentioned potential “government backstops” for AI infrastructure, the backlash was immediate. Sam Altman quickly clarified: “We do not have or want government guarantees for OpenAI datacenters. Governments should not pick winners or losers.”
That clarification made sense. No one wants the optics of corporate bailouts. But it also exposed a deeper reality. The scale of AI infrastructure now rivals that of railroads, power grids, and nuclear programs. Governments will inevitably get involved, whether through direct subsidies, tax incentives, or national AI infrastructure initiatives. The strategic value is too high for the public sector to sit out entirely.
The Growing Backlash
We are already seeing backlash against recent remarks from AI leaders about potential government-backed funding, and it is not hard to understand why. While millions face job losses or disruption from automation, the idea of taxpayer money supporting AI giants feels tone-deaf.
If governments are going to fund AI (and they will), they need to ensure the public shares in the upside. That could mean UBI, cheaper essentials, subsidized education, or even national debt relief. The people losing their jobs to automation deserve a stake in the abundance AI creates. Shared investment must mean shared reward.
If the State Funds the Machines, It Must Reward the People
AI will transform or replace entire categories of work. OECD and McKinsey both estimate that roughly 30 percent of jobs could be fully automated by 2030, with most others changing in nature. These are structural shifts, not temporary layoffs. The displaced labor will not reappear in its old form.
If governments are going to finance the automation of human work, they have a responsibility to balance that with measures that sustain human livelihood. That can take multiple forms:
- Universal Basic Income or direct cash transfers to cushion displacement
- Subsidies on housing, energy, and education to lower the cost of living
- Public investment in retraining and entrepreneurship
- National debt reduction or citizen dividend programs that create macroeconomic breathing room
Each of these options accomplishes the same goal: making sure the social contract evolves alongside the technology curve.
Work Itself Is Changing
The definition of a job is shifting from hourly employment toward creative, project-based, and entrepreneurial work. This trend is not new; it has been predicted for years. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report highlights that AI accelerates this shift, devaluing routine labor while amplifying demand for creativity, empathy, and human judgment.
We are moving from an economy of repetition to one of invention. AI does not just replace jobs; it rewrites what work means.
The Purpose of the System
Commerce and capitalism have always been about fighting scarcity, making more with less. AI is the ultimate scarcity reducer. It drives the cost of production, creation, and decision-making toward zero.
If governments are going to fund that transformation, they must ensure the resulting abundance reaches everyone, not just the shareholders of a few companies. Whether through UBI, subsidized essentials, or sovereign debt relief, the same principle applies: shared investment demands shared reward.
Governments will fund AI because they have to. The question is whether they will fund it for citizens or merely around them. That answer will decide if AI ushers in an era of shared abundance or deepened division.
