Former OpenAI researcher says a $10,000 monthly UBI will be "feasible" with AI-enabled growth

• AI leaders have long advocated for a universal basic income.
• Most basic income pilot programs range from $500 to $1,500 a month, no strings attached.
• Former OpenAI researcher Miles Brundage said those numbers should be much higher.

Would you be interested in a $10,000 monthly check with no strings attached?

That's a reality that former OpenAI researcherMiles Brundagesaid could be possible in the age of AI.

Tech leaders have long called for aUniversal Basic Income, or UBI, to offset job loss caused by artificial intelligence.

A universal basic income is generally considered a monthly government stipend for the entire population. It differs from the guaranteedBasic income programsthat many cities and states are experimenting with these days. Those typically provide recurring payments to a specific population based on socioeconomic status. So far, most of these experiments have offered cash payments between $500 and $1,500 a month.

Brundage said on X this week, however, that policymakers should be thinking bigger.

"I think that a significantly more generous UBI experiment than has been tried so far (say, $10k/month vs. $1k/month) would show big effects," he wrote.

Brundage said this would be possible due to the impacts AI will have on the economy.

$1k/month is relevant to what's feasible policy-wise today," Brundage said. "$10k/month is relevant to what will be feasible policy-wise in a few years with AI-enabled growth.

AI Advancements are alreadythreatening some entry-level jobs. ManyLeaders of the AI industry, including Elon Musk, have supported basic income programs. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman helped fund one of thelargest basic income studies,which gave recipients $1,000 per month for three years.

Brundage resigned as OpenAI's senior policy advisor and head of the AGI readiness team in 2024. At the time, he wrote in a blog post that labor disruptions caused by AI was on his mind.

"In the near-term, I worry a lot about AI disrupting opportunities for people who desperately want work, but I think it's simultaneously true that humanity should eventually remove the obligation to work for a living and that doing so is one of the strongest arguments for building AI and AGI in the first place," Brundage wrote.

Brundage said our current systems are not prepared to address that reality right now.

"That is not something we are prepared for politically, culturally, or otherwise, and needs to be part of the policy conversation. A naive shift toward a post-work world risks civilizational stagnation (see: WALL-E), and much more thought and debate about this is needed," he said.

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