Sam Altman Claims Weaker Belief in UBI, Worldcoin and Cash UBI Plans Under Pressure
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated in a podcast with The Atlantic's CEO Nicholas Thompson that his belief in Universal Basic Income (UBI) is not as strong as it once was.
His 8-year advocacy for UBI has shifted towards "collective ownership," aiming to allow everyone to hold shares in computing power or AI companies, benefiting together from AI profits rather than receiving fixed monthly payments.
Investors in AI profit distribution are buying shares in OpenAI or assets related to computing power, with funds shifting from crypto UBI projects to a model of collective ownership in AI infrastructure. Beneficiaries of OpenAI and computing power are profiting, while Worldcoin and pure cash UBI plans are under pressure.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Sam Altman previously strongly advocated for UBI, conducting a crypto UBI experiment through the Worldcoin (formerly World) project from 2022 to 2024, distributing WLD tokens via iris scans for identity verification. Earlier, WLD had surged to a high of $11.82 in March 2024. This public shift marks a strategic adjustment from "direct cash transfers" to "collective ownership of production materials."
In terms of capital pathways, Altman advocates for large-scale construction of computing power and lowering usage barriers, while allowing ordinary people to share in AI profits through equity or computing power shares. The growth in OpenAI's valuation and potential future IPO/dividend mechanisms can be directly translated into public ownership, forming a positive feedback loop of "AI profits → collective dividends," avoiding monopolization of high-priced computing power by a few.
Similar to the early internet's evolution from "access fees" to "free + ads" and then to equitable platform ownership, OpenAI is in the mid-stage transition from "tool experimentation" to "collective ownership infrastructure" in the AI era. The iteration of Codex from command line to app exemplifies its emphasis on tool accessibility.
Essentially, this represents capital concentration: the traditional UBI model relying on government or project direct cash redistribution is being replaced by AI collective ownership. Altman aims to concentrate the productivity dividends of AI among the public through shared computing power and equity, restructuring wealth distribution from a "post-factum cash subsidy" to a structural mechanism of "pre-factum collective ownership of production materials."