Good points. The economics and practicalities are something I wish I had more time to address in the paper, as at the end of the day getting it to work is all that matters.
Buying political time with debt and four-six year election cycles really cripples long term thinking. No sane politician is to tell their constituents we are going to add another tax for a problem that might arise in 5 , 10 , 20 years.
Paying for either program will be very difficult I agree. Given nation states have had their power drop with every technological advancement and globalization policy, taxing AI will be very difficult unless the core infrastructure is controlled by the government such as how roads, power generation, resources, ect have been the past. That in itself is a problem, but AI doesn’t need to be in a specific country to operate there, the nearest tax haven will do.
The private sector will need to see some value in governments, whether it is creating social programs, education, healthcare or even subordination, governments’ role needs to be re-examined. Otherwise nothing is stopping the Big 5 tech companies from ruling the world under their own principles.
Taxing AI is essentially taxing innovation at this point, so countries have incentive not to do so, but then the culture and buy in will never come when the need for taxation comes. It really is a tricky problem.
The focus on limiting government power is also interesting, but some nation states will have better luck implementing the program. Northern European countries have already developed strong government and community driven cultures and along with their relative small size would allow for an implementation. Hopefully, other western countries will begin to see the benefits and follow their leads.
Another interesting angle is how cryptocurrencies will affect the relationship between work, fiat currency, inflation, purchasing power and government. If governments don’t control the supply of said currencies (unless they are Estonia and super tech savy) we may see the end of monetary and fiscal policy as we know today.
At the end of the day, we need to start running experiments, as some countries/regions are. Learn what the culture of the country is willing to accept. Help educate people on what the future looks like without creating panic. Sadly, I’m not sure our leaders are looking that far ahead.
