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Economic Architecture for the Superintelligence Era

A new industrial policy

Artificial intelligence is advancing at a pace that rivals the Industrial Revolution. Unlike past cycles, market forces alone cannot manage the concentration of wealth or the displacement of human roles. A proactive, people-first policy is needed to ensure superintelligence benefits society at large. The aim is shared prosperity, risk mitigation, and democratized access to AI tools.

Modernising the tax base

As value shifts from human labour to automated outputs, payroll taxes erode. To sustain social programmes, revenue must be rebalanced. Capital gains and corporate taxes should capture AI-driven profits, while levies on automated labour replace lost payroll contributions. Incentives must reward firms that retrain and retain workers, ensuring AI augments rather than replaces human agency.

Public Wealth Fund

A Public Wealth Fund would give every citizen a direct stake in AI growth. Seeded by government and frontier AI firms, it would invest in equity, AI-adopting companies, and diversified assets. Returns would be distributed as citizen dividends, preventing wealth concentration and ensuring broad participation in the upside of superintelligence.

Adaptive safety nets

Traditional safety nets tied to employers are obsolete. Portable benefit accounts should follow individuals across jobs and industries. Automated triggers would scale support when displacement rises. Efficiency dividends—such as four-day workweek pilots and enhanced healthcare or childcare subsidies—would convert AI productivity gains into human security and reclaimed time.

Labour market impacts

Observed exposure data shows AI affects high-earning, white-collar roles most. Programmers, customer service representatives, and data entry workers face high automation risk, while manual labour remains resilient. Hiring trends among young workers already show a 14% decline in exposed occupations. Policy must anticipate displacement before it becomes widespread.

Governance and global accountability

Resilience requires post-deployment monitoring and real-time auditing. A Center for AI Standards and Innovation should oversee risks in cybersecurity, biology, and autonomous replication. Frontier firms must adopt Public Benefit Corporation structures to prevent insider capture. International cooperation through a global network of AI institutes would harmonise safety protocols and crisis responses.

Conclusion

Superintelligence is not a distant prospect but an ongoing economic reorganisation. Institutions must be built to ensure inclusive prosperity, portable security, and democratic participation. The challenge is to harness extraordinary progress without allowing it to deepen inequality or erode social cohesion. 

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