Tax Plan for Human Flourishing

Artificial intelligence is advancing faster than our laws, our institutions, and our communities can respond. If we fail to act now, we risk outcomes that threaten the protection of our families, our freedoms, and the future of our country. We the People have the right and the responsibility to demand a tax system that puts human flourishing first.

 

Bold structural changes are needed to ensure our economic system serves the public in an age shaped by artificial intelligence. Many ideas have been proposed, including Bill Gates’s token tax and reserve jobs concept. RAISE-UP proposes this tax plan to finance an all-hands-on-deck patriotic mobilization unlike anything we've seen since World War II.

 

There are two unacceptable risks we must confront:

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1. AI systems could cause serious and irreversible harm, including assisting domestic terrorism, autonomously breaking into companies or critical infrastructure, enabling dangerous biological or chemical misuse, or causing large scale harm through uncontrolled actions.

2. AI could be used in ways that create mass unemployment and widespread instability.

 

A tax system that serves the public must address both.

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1. A Wealth Tax on Billionaires to Build Real AI Oversight

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The government cannot protect our families or our freedoms without the resources to regulate AI effectively. A targeted wealth tax should be created to fund strong, independent oversight of AI systems. This tax will enable the U.S. government to "support an international effort to develop the technical and governance tools needed to deliberately pace the frontier of automated AI development." The private sector should participate, but it must be clear that the government will act decisively to safeguard the public. Safety and accountability cannot depend on voluntary promises from powerful companies. This tax will be essential to helping protect the wealth of the billionaires.

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2. An AI Token Tax to Protect Workers and Strengthen Communities

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Companies may choose to replace human labor with AI in ways that are unpredictable and harmful. To guard against this, an AI token tax should be applied to the use of AI systems. This tax would operate as an automatic stabilizer that adjusts based on a Human Flourishing Index.

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The index would include unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, direct measures of human flourishing, and other indicators of social and economic health. When AI creates jobs, strengthens communities, protects families, and expands opportunity, the tax rate would remain low. When AI adoption leads to unemployment, declining well being, or social harm, the tax would increase. This tax would provide a direct incentive for companies to take human flourishing into consideration when making decisions and even contribute to human flourishing in innovative ways.

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The principle is simple. If AI helps people thrive and creates jobs for everyone, companies benefit. If AI harms people and there is mass unemployment, companies pay. This plan ensures that AI development supports human flourishing and protects the freedoms and stability that We the People deserve.