ANALYSIS, INTERPRETATION AND PLANNING FOR THE IMPACT

OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Ella Dragolj
BIS 340: Artificial Intelligence: The Human Side
Bill Erwin
04/19/21

Total Word Count: 2232 words

 PART TWO: COURSE PROJECT:
“ANALYSIS, INTERPRETATION, AND PLANNING FOR THE IMPACT OF AI”
Addressing the Economic/Political AI Issues

My Organization Plan
Big companies like Amazon are the best at avoiding taxation, so they are not helping

solve any problems. VAT’s, Value Added Tax, on technology is a way to ensure UBI’s can be

paid for. They are common and are usually at 20%, but the United States could have a 10% VAT

and fund UBI. According to Yang (2018), “An analysis by the Roosevelt Institute of this $12,000

per year per adult proposal found that adopting it would permanently grow the economy by

12.56 to 13.10 percent- or about $2.5 trillion by 2025- and it would increase the labor force by

4.5 to 4.7 million people” (p. 169). It seems more than reasonable that a combination of VAT

revenue, increased economic growth, and more labor tax revenue can make UBI a reality.

Smaller organizations, like mine, are not affected by UBI unless we start to increase our financial

capital by a lot. Even then, we would be more than able to afford a VAT. This holds companies

accountable while benefiting all parties involved like the company itself, or other stakeholders

such as the community.

Lee is aligned pretty closely with Yang’s economic reform ideas and solving the AI-

related employment problems. Lee actually expands on Yang’s idea for a UBI and proposes

three key policies called The Three R’s: reduce, retain, and redistribute. AI reduces the demand

for human labor, so “reduce” policy would find a solution for how to distribute work hours

among employees. Lee suggests moving to a three-day work week, spreading the work over

more workers, splitting a full-time job into multiple part-time jobs, reducing hours by 20-40

percent, and work-share arrangements as possible avenues. The “retrain” policy would focus on
online education and lifelong learning in order to prepare the workforce for AI. Finally, the

“redistribute” policy is where Lee suggests a social investment stipend. This is also where Lee

disagrees slightly with Yang and expands on UBI. Lee agrees UBI might solve some technical

and financial issues, but argues it is a quick solution and other solutions deserve more thought.

More specifically, he believes there needs to be a focus on consciously creating more

jobs that tap into human value, so there can be a separation between humans and machines.

Focusing on cultivating new types of jobs that require a human touch could potentially be more

beneficial than UBI in the long-term. Lee (2018) explains “the stipend would be a decent

government salary given to those who invest their time and energy in those activities that

promote a kind, compassionate, and creative society” (p. 220). The stipend provides these types

of new jobs and there would be three broad categories: care work, social work, and education.

Any work in any job category requires a social contribution to get the stipend.

This is another interesting take on the economic reform necessary for AI. Conscious

capitalism, as described by John Mackey, would be part of my recommendation for economic

reform in the organization. Adopting this version of capitalism leads to a more cooperative,

positive, and humane view of economics. It is possible to find work fulfilling, enjoy it more, and

increase profits. This could help address some of the economic issues we might face. These new

economic policies, a combination of them all, would help curtail the effects of job displacement

and decrease the number of workers on disability. 

My Personal Plan
The economy could change dramatically if Universal Base Income was implemented.

Andrew Yang made many good points about how UBI can help negate the negative impacts of

AI on the economy. Yang proposes that every citizen should receive a $1000 check each month

as long as they are 18 or older as his first step toward economic reform. Anyone in any social
income class would receive this check, but those in the more affluent class, like millionaires and

billionaires, would pay that check back when it comes time to do their taxes. The check will be

used to supplement current income for those who really need it. UBI has the potential to improve

the financial health of the lower and middle class, while allowing for the wealthy, or ambitious,

to maintain and expand their income. It puts money directly into the hands of the people, but the

idea is that this money does not go to waste because it goes right back into the economy. UBI

would help create a “trickle up” economy, Instead of a “trickle down” economy”.

It seems like a new concept, but it has been around for quite some time. Many presidents

and communities have already attempted, or are currently, using a form of UBI. This is occurring

despite their political orientation, as well (republican or democrat). Alaska is an example of a

community that has had a form of UBI in place for 30 years now. Each citizen of Alaska receives

a check from the oil revenue the state earns. The support and evidence for UBI seems clear from

Yang’s perspective. There are many objections to UBI including how it will be paid for, how it

will impact peoples’ incentives to work, how it will affect inflation, how it will change peoples’

spending habits, and how it will change the government.

Yang proposes good solutions and simple explanations for why these objections are not

something to worry about. When it comes to how affordable UBI is, Yang believes AI will be

extremely profitable and most of the beneficiaries of the AI economy will be some of the already

well-known companies like Amazon. There are many projected economic, and social, benefits

from UBI, so why not try to implement it. Kai-Fu has a similar, yet different approach to

addressing the negative economic impacts of AI. One point that stands out is that the growing

gap between the top 1% and the lower- and middle-income earners is dangerous for all types of

workers.
 Those at the bottom, especially when it is growing at large rates, will get tired of

suffering and want major reforms for wealth redistribution. With 70% of new wealth created by

AI projected to go to China and the U.S., the gap between poor countries and AI leaders will

only increase. Poor countries will not have a way to improve their economy if they have no

competitive edge. Kai-Fu wants to improve the situation with the lower- and middle-class

workers. It is possible to address this economic disparity, while still wanting more people to be

wealthy, through those key policies explained previously. 

Addressing the Sociological AI Issues

My Organization Plan
The fact of the matter is that AI will create enormous amounts of wealth, according to

Lee. This will provide an opportunity to address economic inequalities. This can improve

everyone’s life because the wealth will bring security. Organizations who embrace AI can be a

part of that. The globe is always shrinking, so Lee (2018) discusses how everyone needs to start

looking for support from one another, be inspired by other approaches seen, and learn how to

benefit from approaches that do seem to be working for different areas: elder care, work concept

diversity, education, etc. Organizations should also look to working internationally to address

issues like privacy and online security. This will help the integration of AI and humanity. 

My Personal Plan
In order to address the issue of peoples’ incentives to work, there has been so much

research that has proven that work hours remain fairly consistent with only two groups that work

slightly less than before UBI. The two groups are single mothers and young people. Mothers are

spending more time with their children and young people are going back to school or starting a

business. These groups were only working less by maximum only 5 hours, too. Data also

indicates that people will not start spending their money recklessly, like on drugs and alcohol.
There are always a few people who will be irresponsible, but studies so far show that the average

American will behave more responsibly. These are just a few of the valid responses Yang has in

terms of why there should be support for UBI to help with this transition to AI, despite the

general objections seen. Lee brings in a different perspective to addressing the negative

sociological impacts of AI.

He believes that AI’s ability to think with coupled peoples’ ability to love is what the

shared future should resemble. According to Lee (2018), “If we can create this synergy, it will let

us harness the undeniable power of artificial intelligence to generate prosperity while also

embracing our essential humanity” (pp. 195-196). Lee goes on to say that this synergy will not

be easy to create because societies need to be reorganized. It will take social unity, empathy,

creative policies, overcoming set mental models, and more. Everyone will need to be fully

committed and involved in this approach to economic and social transformation. Family and

education are two other sociological areas American society need to work on reforming.

Automation should lead in more investments in education, especially to address lack of

awareness, and human capital development. There should be more vocational training available.

Technology is helpful in teaching environments that are already strong, but actually

hinders those that are weaker. It needs to be applied appropriately in educational settings because

there are no real, definitive benefits right now, but many possible negatives. College is not

always the answer as it seems to be a dropout factory (Yang, 2018, p. 232). Making college more

affordable is one way to combat the negative sociological impacts. One way to do that is by

taxing rich universities endowments. There can also be an entirely new format for schools that

apply technology. For example, schools can be fully immersive in that students learn online but

live together.
 Students’ faces could be shown the entire time to ensure engagement and accountability,

like at the Minerva Project (Yang, 2018, p. 238). Their academic success would be measured by

habits of mind instead of tests. This makes things even like traveling for students possible, while

still keeping costs down. It could be half of the tuition of today’s universities. Keeping parents

together has been shown to have a positive impact on the outcomes on children (Yang, 2018, p.

230). AI could be developed to do things like subsidize marriage counseling. Parents spending

more time with children also has similar benefits for children. The United States is one of the

only industrialized countries that doesn’t provide federally mandated time off for new mothers. 

Addressing the Psychological AI Issues

My Organization Plan
Organizations have to develop new methods of engaging employees with technology,

according to Yang (2018). There has to be more than just a financial incentive. As addiction to

technology has been increasing, so has depression and other mental health issues. Reminding the

organization that the stakeholders are the ones who need to be prioritized, to continuously create

organization value, will help realign the organization with the purpose of being caring and

socially responsible. This will have a positive impact on the psychological aspects AI affects.

Creating a healthy atmosphere is key for human success and mental health adds to capital. Better

mental health leads to better overall performance and mindset. 

My Personal Plan
There are many reforms that need to be considered for psychological issues increasing

daily in the United States. The well-being of Americans is threatened by alcohol and drug

addiction, suicide, depression, anxiety, and criminal incarceration. Too often organizations are

not held accountable and prioritizing financial gain over all else works. Crime pays. Yang (2018)

references the company that promoted Oxycontin as non-addictive. They made $35 billion in
revenue and only paid a $635 million fine for their aid in the opiate epidemic (Yang, 2018, p.

208). New laws that call out market abuse, more strict regulation, would be a way to add another

layer of needed accountability. This is also applicable to education. Many of the issues arise due

to a lack of accountability to key stakeholders. 

Conclusion
All of the different areas impacted by AI are interconnected. Once one area sees

improvement and benefits, it is likely that the other areas will too. There are always possible

solutions when analyzing AI and automation because humans are the engineers of it. A general

awareness among people is the thing missing, so once that awareness is heightened there will be

more of a focus on the positive coexistence with AI. Emphasizing and developing the things that

make people human will help address all of the different impacts AI will have.

Redefining what is important in the age of automation will be important for survival in

this new era. Love is one of those things that will always separate humans from machines. The

beauty of automation is that it can be the key to freeing humans from the working shackles to be

able to focus on that love mentioned. People do not need to be afraid of AI; they are the authors

of it. Humans are the ones who bring AI to life, so it should be able to be managed. If everyone

is aware of the issues and can collaborate to come up with potential solutions for the greater

good, then human flourishing can be enhanced by AI, not diminished. 

 References
Kai-Fu, L. (2018). AI super-powers: China, Silicon Valley, and the new world order. Harcourt.

Yang, A. (2018). The war on normal people: The truth about America’s disappearing jobs and

why universal base income is our future. Hachette Books.