The AI era needs new policies! OpenAI proposes 4 major initiatives: a three-day workweek and a robot tax

Policies such as an OpenAI robot tax and a three-day weekend. But the CEO is mired in an internal scandal, and with a valuation as high as $852 billion and high costs, secondary-market investors are shifting their favor to its rival, Anthropic.

OpenAI releases AI policy proposals, reshaping a new system for wealth and work

As governments around the world work to address the economic impact brought by AI, OpenAI has released a package of policy proposals outlining how to reshape the way wealth and work are handled when the “AI intelligence age” arrives.

OpenAI’s proposal is basically a wish list, as well as a public statement intended to help elected officials, investors, and the public understand how this company, valued at $852 billion, views the era shift in which artificial intelligence changes the workforce and the economy.

OpenAI’s four major policy initiatives

For the economic transition of the intelligence era, OpenAI has mainly put forward the following four initiatives:

Tax reform and a robot tax

OpenAI suggests shifting the tax burden from the workforce to capital. The company warns that, as AI-driven growth could expand corporate profits and reduce reliance on workers’ income, it will hollow out the tax base that funds social safety nets, medical subsidies, and housing assistance.

To that end, OpenAI proposes higher taxes on corporate income and top-level capital gains, while also suggesting the possibility of levying a robot tax, so that robots that replace human workers pay the same amount of taxes.

Create a national public wealth fund

To ensure that all citizens can share in the economic growth brought by artificial intelligence, OpenAI proposes establishing a public wealth fund.

This would allow citizens—even those who do not invest in the market—to automatically receive public shares in AI companies and infrastructure, and any investment returns from the fund would be directly distributed to citizens, ensuring that wealth does not concentrate in the hands of a few.

No pay cuts—subsidize a four-day workweek

In terms of labor benefits, OpenAI proposes a system that subsidizes a four-day workweek without cutting pay, and recommends that companies increase pension contribution ratios, shoulder a larger share of healthcare costs, and subsidize childcare or eldercare expenses.

In addition, OpenAI also recommends setting up portable benefits accounts, so that benefits such as healthcare and retirement savings can move with workers as they switch industries, without being limited to a single employer.

Accelerate the expansion of the power grid and infrastructure

To support the development of AI’s massive power demand, OpenAI proposes creating a new public-private partnership model to raise funds and speed up the expansion of energy infrastructure. OpenAI also suggests accelerating construction by offering subsidies, tax credits, or equity investments, and argues that AI should be treated as a public utility, with industry and government cooperating to ensure prices are reasonable and it is widely used.

At the time this proposal was released, anxiety about AI was rising, largely driven by concerns about jobs being replaced, wealth concentrating, and the building of data centers across the country. It also coincided with the Trump administration pushing national AI policies and ahead of the midterm elections, suggesting that OpenAI is trying to position itself to strike a balance between the two parties.

Source: OpenAI OpenAI releases AI policy proposals to reshape a new system for wealth and work

Before releasing the policy proposal, New Yorker hits Altman with media punches

Before OpenAI released its policy proposal, CEO Sam Altman was facing a barrage of media scrutiny.

A detailed investigative report in The New Yorker magazine said that in 2023, OpenAI co-founder and at the time chief scientist Ilya Sutskever had written an internal memo accusing Sam Altman of deceptive conduct regarding the company’s safety agreements and other key operational matters.

The New Yorker said these trust issues led OpenAI’s board to fire Altman, concluding that he had not been consistently candid with the board. The firing triggered a storm inside the company: employees threatened to collectively resign in protest, while heavyweight investors such as Josh Kushner threatened to withhold operating funds unless Altman was reinstated.

There were disagreements within OpenAI on governance and safety issues. Former OpenAI members—including Ilya Sutskever and Dario Amodei, co-founder of Anthropic—believed that Altman put the company’s growth and product expansion ahead of the original mission that prioritized safety.

Source: The New Yorker report headline cover New Yorker media punches Sam Altman right as OpenAI is about to roll out its AI policy proposal

OpenAI stock is also falling out of favor in the secondary market

On the other hand, according to a report by Bloomberg, OpenAI’s stock has already started to lose favor in the secondary market, with investors rapidly shifting toward its biggest competitor, Anthropic.

Ken Smythe, founder of Next Round Capital, said that in recent weeks, institutional investors such as several hedge funds and venture capital firms holding large stakes in OpenAI, have been looking to sell OpenAI stock worth about $600 million, but can’t find buyers to take it; the buyers have indicated that they have $2 billion in cash ready to invest in Anthropic.

Some investors are also becoming more cautious about OpenAI’s rising operating costs. OpenAI has pledged that over the next few years it will spend more money than Anthropic on infrastructure to support development.

However, while OpenAI has a huge consumer base, it has made relatively slow progress in winning more profitable enterprise customers; by contrast, Anthropic has an advantage in the enterprise market with higher profit margins, leading its growth trajectory to be seen by the market as clearer and stronger than OpenAI’s.

Further reading:
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