Amidst governmental efforts to address the economic consequences of advanced AI, OpenAI has put forth a set of policy recommendations detailing how wealth distribution and employment might transform in an “intelligence age.” These proposals combine conventionally left-leaning approaches, such as public wealth funds and enhanced social safety nets, with an underlying capitalist, market-oriented economic structure.
These proposals from OpenAI serve as a comprehensive roadmap, a public statement designed to inform policymakers, investors, and the general public about the $852 billion company’s perspective on the profound shifts expected in labor and the economy due to artificial intelligence.
These proposals emerge amidst rising apprehension concerning AI, fueled by worries about job losses, wealth disparity, and extensive data center expansions nationwide. Their timing coincides with the Trump administration’s development of a national AI policy and the upcoming midterm elections, indicating a strategic move for bipartisan appeal. This initiative is complemented by a more overt political strategy: OpenAI President Greg Brockman — who has contributed millions to President Donald Trump — and other prominent tech figures have channeled hundreds of millions into super PACs advocating for minimal AI regulation.
The framework proposed by OpenAI focuses on three core objectives: broadening the distribution of wealth generated by AI, establishing protections to minimize systemic hazards, and guaranteeing widespread availability of AI technologies to prevent excessive concentration of economic influence and opportunities.
OpenAI suggests reallocating the tax burden from labor to capital. While the company refrains from detailing a specific corporate tax rate — which saw a reduction from 35% to 21% under Trump’s initial term — OpenAI cautions that AI-fueled expansion might erode the tax revenue supporting programs like Social Security, Medicaid, SNAP, and housing aid, as corporate earnings grow and dependence on labor wages diminishes.
“With AI transforming work and production, the nature of economic activity is likely to change, leading to increased corporate profits and capital gains, while potentially lessening the dependence on labor income and payroll tax contributions,” OpenAI stated.
The company advocates for increased taxation on corporate earnings, profits derived from AI, or high-end capital gains — a policy stance that prompted Marc Andreessen to support Trump following Biden’s 2024 proposal to tax unrealized capital gains. OpenAI also contemplates a “robot tax,” an idea suggested by Microsoft founder Bill Gates in 2017, wherein a robot would contribute the equivalent tax amount as the human worker it displaces.
Additionally, the document outlines a plan for a Public Wealth Fund, designed to grant Americans an inherent public ownership in AI firms and infrastructure, regardless of their market investments. Any profits generated would be directly disbursed to citizens. This concept could resonate with Americans who have observed AI boost market values without personally benefiting from those increases.
Several of OpenAI’s recommendations also emphasized labor, such as subsidizing a four-day work week without a reduction in wages — a suggestion consistent with the tech sector’s assurances that AI will enhance human work-life equilibrium. OpenAI further proposes that businesses increase retirement contributions or matching, assume a greater portion of healthcare expenses, and support childcare or eldercare. Importantly, OpenAI presents these as corporate obligations rather than governmental ones, which overlooks individuals most susceptible to AI-driven displacement. Should automation eliminate employment, associated employer-subsidized benefits like healthcare and retirement contributions might also cease.
Nevertheless, OpenAI separately advocates for portable benefit accounts that transfer with employees between roles. However, these would probably still rely on contributions from employers or platforms, and they fall short of comprehensive government-funded universal coverage that would truly safeguard individuals fully displaced by AI.
OpenAI recognizes that AI poses risks extending beyond employment reduction, encompassing potential misuse by states or malicious entities, and the danger of autonomous systems exceeding human oversight. To counteract these dangers, it suggests strategies for containing hazardous AI, establishing novel regulatory entities, and implementing specific protective measures against critical applications such as cyberwarfare and biological hazards.
However, alongside these safety nets and protective measures, there are also growth-oriented proposals, such as expanding electrical infrastructure to meet AI’s energy requirements and expediting the deployment of AI infrastructure through subsidies, tax incentives, or equity investments. OpenAI asserts that AI should be regarded as a public utility and, to this effect, advises collaboration between industry and government to guarantee AI’s accessibility and affordability for all, preventing its monopolization by a select few companies.
This framework from OpenAI follows by half a year the release of a rival policy blueprint from Anthropic, which presented various potential reactions to AI-induced upheaval.
“We are transitioning into a novel era of economic and social structure that will profoundly alter employment, information, and manufacturing,” OpenAI stated. This, according to the company, necessitates a “revised industrial policy framework designed to ensure that superintelligence serves the interests of all.”
Initially established as a nonprofit with the goal of AI benefiting all humankind, OpenAI transitioned to a for-profit entity last year. This change has prompted critics to inquire about the compatibility of its proclaimed mission with its imperative for expansion and its fiduciary obligations to investors.
The company referenced historical periods of economic transformation, such as the Industrial Age, highlighting how new economic and financial initiatives, like the New Deal, guaranteed that “growth led to wider opportunities and enhanced security” through the “establishment of novel public institutions, safeguards, and ideals for an equitable economy, encompassing worker protections, safety regulations, social welfare programs, and broadened educational access.”
“The shift towards superintelligence will demand an even more aspirational industrial policy, one that demonstrates the capacity of democratic societies to collaboratively and extensively mold their economic trajectory to ensure superintelligence provides advantages for all,” OpenAI concluded.