A recent poll shows that layoffs in the U.S. technology industry are intensifying, and most employees hope to use artificial intelligence sovereign wealth funds to force companies to assume more social responsibilities. Villaslet conducted a national survey of 1,690 American adults in June and announced the results earlier this month: 69% of Americans support legislation forcing artificial intelligence giants to transfer half of their shares to public sovereign wealth funds.
Benjamin Leif, CEO of the agency, said: "In the eyes of ordinary people, artificial intelligence sovereign wealth funds can return the dividends generated by the artificial intelligence industry to the entire society."
Senator Bernie Sanders proposed the "U.S. Artificial Intelligence Sovereign Wealth Fund Act" in June this year. Once the bill is enacted, the American people will hold 50% of the shares of the leading domestic artificial intelligence companies.
"This bill will ensure that the economic benefits created by artificial intelligence benefit all people, rather than making the world's richest people even richer," Sanders said in a statement last month.
"The future direction of artificial intelligence and the fate of mankind must not be decided behind closed doors by a group of billionaires in Silicon Valley. They only want to expand their power and grab high profits."
At present, American companies are continuously increasing their investment in expanding their artificial intelligence business. At the same time, technology layoffs are occurring frequently. Many employees are feeling frustrated and worried about losing their jobs.
Goldman Sachs Group released a report last month, and its senior global economist Joseph Briggs estimated that during the ten-year transformation period when artificial intelligence becomes popular, more than 9% of the workforce (about 15 million employees) will face unemployment.
Briggs said: "The impact of this round of job elimination and labor reallocation is comparable to the situation during the major technological changes in the late 1990s and early 21st century." However, the Goldman Sachs report also mentioned that Briggs believes that the unemployment problem is only a phased phenomenon; in the long run, while artificial intelligence will eliminate old jobs, it will also create a large number of new job opportunities.
The think tank Windfall Trust proposed that sovereign wealth funds assume multiple functions in the field of artificial intelligence: they invest in the construction of expensive artificial intelligence infrastructure and lead national artificial intelligence research and development; they purchase equity in artificial intelligence companies and return the economic benefits brought by artificial intelligence to the national treasury to benefit the people.
However, sovereign wealth funds are also caught between a rock and a hard place and need to find a balance between public welfare and the global artificial intelligence arms race.
Windfall Trust added: The fund has conflicting goals: on the one hand, it must fulfill its financial mission and strive for the highest return on investment for the people; on the other hand, it must shoulder the strategic mission of building the country’s artificial intelligence capabilities and controlling cutting-edge artificial intelligence systems. If the investment targets with the highest returns are overseas artificial intelligence companies rather than local companies, the contradiction between the two missions will be highlighted.