According to CNBC, according to a new survey,Even as overall corporate profits continue to grow, layoffs in the tech industry continue to increase, fueling employee dissatisfaction. Today, most U.S. employees hope to increase corporate accountability through the establishment of an AI sovereign wealth fund.
U.S. AI giants face pressure to sell stakes
Research firm Verasight conducted a national survey of 1,690 U.S. adults in June and released the results earlier this month. The survey shows that69% of Americans support “mandating” AI companies to transfer 50% of their stakes to a public sovereign wealth fund.
“In the public eye, AI sovereign wealth funds are seen as a tool that can redistribute the benefits created by the AI industry to the broader public.” Verasight CEO Benjamin Leff said.
69% support forcing AI companies to sell 50% of their shares
In June this year, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders proposed the "U.S. AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act." If the bill is passed, the public will hold 50% of the shares of large American AI companies.
"This will ensure that the economic benefits generated by AI are used to improve all of our lives, not just make the world's richest people richer," Sanders said in a statement last month.
"The future of AI and the fate of humanity should never be determined behind closed doors by billionaires in Silicon Valley who are bent on maximizing power and profits," Sanders said.
layoffs intensify
Rising layoffs in the U.S. technology industry have left many employees frustrated and worried about job security. At the same time, companies continue to increase capital expenditures for AI expansion.
According to a report released by Goldman Sachs last month, Goldman Sachs senior global economist Joseph Briggs estimated that more than 9% of the workforce, or approximately 15 million employees, may lose their jobs during the AI transformation period over the next 10 years.
Briggs said this "will be similar to the kind of automation and reconfiguration shocks we saw in the late 1990s, early 2000s and other periods of major technological change."
However, Goldman Sachs pointed out in the report that Briggs believes thatThese job losses will be temporary, as he expects that although AI will replace some existing jobs, it will also create a large number of new jobs in the long term..
Sovereign wealth funds can play multiple roles in the field of AI. According to research organization Windfall Trust, they can lead AI development at the national level by funding capital-intensive AI infrastructure, acquiring equity in AI companies, and incorporating a portion of AI-driven economic gains into public finances, allowing all people to share development dividends.
However, sovereign wealth funds may also face challenges in balancing public interests with the global race to build AI capabilities.
"Sovereign wealth funds also face conflicts between financial objectives (maximizing investment returns for citizens) and strategic objectives (building national AI capabilities and maintaining influence on cutting-edge AI systems). These two objectives may conflict when the best financial investments are in foreign AI companies rather than domestic enterprises." Windfall Trust said.