GEAB July 2023

From agriculture and printing press to the Internet, all technological advances have had socio-economic consequences, leading to profound changes in society. Easy access to the power of artificial intelligence will be no exception.

This revolution concerns higher education graduates, who will be the first victims of the automation of work. This will increase several types of inequality, such as income inequality, gender and skills inequality. As their working conditions are already far from optimal, this latest event will be the culmination of the decay of social achievements in the West and will profoundly change the relationship with work. Governments will have no choice but to take this new reality into account in their economic policies.

Knowing this, we anticipate that various governments around the world will draw from this crisis a solution that has been gaining traction for years, particularly since the Covid crisis and the rise in inequality that it caused: the implementation of a universal income. The number of supporters of this concept is steadily growing and includes many influential figures. What’s more, the idea is particularly popular with the younger generation, which means that it is likely to be an important project in the coming years.

Public authorities will also be able to take advantage of this situation to move forward on several fronts, combining the provision of this universal income with digital currencies from central banks. In this way, they will solve the problem of the acceptance of this new currency by their populations.