The article argues that universal basic income should not be dismissed in an AI-driven economy, but that its value depends entirely on how it is designed. As automation erodes entry-level jobs and unemployment among graduates remains high, retraining alone is unlikely to solve labor displacement. In that context, a carefully implemented UBI could provide basic economic security, allowing individuals to weather job loss and pursue education or career transitions without immediate financial strain.

At the same time, the article warns that poorly designed UBI programs could reinforce power imbalances and limit mobility. Income thresholds risk creating “cliff effects” that discourage wage growth, while centralized control over eligibility and messaging may deepen class divisions. The author concludes that any serious UBI proposal must focus on incentives, governance, and framing to ensure it empowers recipients rather than entrenching dependence.

If you have been reading this blog for a bit now, you know we have been skeptical of the “AI Bubble.” Our skepticism, or at least my own, has mostly centered around the economic implementation lagging the hype. We spent the better part of 2025 watching companies buy massive amounts of GPU compute to build smarter chatbots, yet aggregate productivity statistics barely budged. (Yes, we have some data now that shows the effects of AI on productivity but not nearly as much as you would think).

While the market was distracted by the “Brain” trade (LLMs, data centers, and NVIDIA chips), you may have missed the momentum building in the “Body” trade.

Last week, I attended a gathering of economists and data scientists from major tech companies, all focused on how technology is reshaping business and work. Practitioners swapped insights on everything from labor market trends to AI experiments. The AI revolution promises to upend how we work and this is happening against the current backdrop of the “pause economy” with hiring and investment in a cautious lull. The discussions ranged from the cooling tech job market to cutting-edge methods in causal inference and AI measurement, and deeper questions about whether AI is a substitute for human work or a “bicycle for the mind.”

It began with headlines.

“Amazon cuts 14,000 corporate jobs as spending on artificial intelligence accelerates.”

“Salesforce CEO: ‘I need less heads.’”

“Meta axes 600 roles amid AI expansion.”

Each announcement laced with brutal irony, revealing companies not in distress but actually flourishing through the very mechanisms that deemed their hires expendable. Fair is fair, though, right? Nothing illegal happened, and technically this is an expectation of the marketplace. So, one can only wish these families all the best… right?

Then came the tag: “AI and robots will replace all jobs,” making work essentially “optional, like growing your own vegetables.”