Sridhar Vembu opposes universal basic income amid AI job fears, calls it dystopian

As AI advances into fields such as software development and mathematics, concerns are growing about what happens if machines take over jobs traditionally performed by highly skilled professionals. Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu has rejected universal basic income (UBI) as a solution to potential AI-driven job losses, arguing that governments should focus on distributing the economic benefits of automation instead.In a post on X on October 12, Vembu called UBI an “unimaginative and dystopian vision of the intellect-worshipping modern man”. He argued that the idea assumes ownership of productive resources will be concentrated in a few hands, leaving governments to compensate people who lose their jobs. Sridhar Vembu openly talks about AI job fears and UBI. Instead, Vembu believes people should be able to earn a living through activities such as raising children, caring for the elderly, restoring nature, making music and practising spiritual traditions. He said these activities could pay well if goods and services were produced with almost no human labour and the resulting wealth was distributed more widely.His comments came in response to AI researcher Andrej Karpathy, who warned that the gap between people's understanding of AI and its actual capabilities is widening. Vembu believes AI could threaten intellectual jobsVembu questioned society's emphasis on intellectual ability, particularly in the modern Western world. He admitted that he had once shared this outlook but said advances in AI were forcing him to reconsider it.“Pure mathematics, the highest intellectual activity known to man, is falling to AI,” he wrote, describing the development as a humbling moment. He added that most intellectual jobs could be at risk, including a significant portion of software-related work. However, Vembu said he was not worried about what humans would do if AI reduced the need for conventional employment. Drawing from his experience of village life, he grouped human activities into four categories - nature, nurture, culture and scripture.These include restoring soil and water, caring for family members, sustaining festivals, playing sports and practising spiritual traditions. He argued that people could earn a living through such pursuits if the benefits of AI-led productivity reached them. UBI is a proposed economic policy under which the government provides regular payments to people, generally without requiring them to work or meet specific income conditions. It has featured in discussions about how societies could support people if automation reduces the demand for human labour.Vembu argued that this approach assumes the means of production will be monopolised. He said governments already have the power to prevent monopolies, suggesting that economic policy should address concentrated ownership rather than rely on universal payments. He also invoked Hindu philosophy, arguing that it never placed the intellect above everything else.Karpathy warns of widening AI capability gapKarpathy's recent post described how differently people experience today's AI systems. He estimated that around 6 billion people have barely interacted with large language models, while another 1 billion to 2 billion use free AI tools occasionally. In contrast, a much smaller group of professionals working with advanced AI systems in programming, mathematics and research is seeing substantial progress, he said.Karpathy noted that AI agents can now complete complex software projects that previously took weeks or months. He also described advanced systems being used for cybersecurity and mathematical research, with human experts increasingly struggling to review all the output. He attributed this gap partly to differences in access and the concentration of AI development on technical tasks where results can be tested and verified.- Ends