Key facts
- Governments should prioritize social safety nets to address AI's impact on the labor market.
- An 'AI substitution tax' was proposed as a potential measure.
- Modern AI's autonomous capabilities distinguish it from previous technologies in its potential to affect jobs.
- The official spoke at the Caixin Summer Summit.
Rather than solely increasing direct investment in artificial intelligence (AI), governments should prioritize building robust social safety nets, potentially including an 'AI substitution tax,' to mitigate the technology’s looming shock to the labor market, a former Chinese official said Wednesday.
Speaking at the Caixin Summer Summit, Jiang Xiaojuan, a former deputy secretary-general of China’s State Council, warned that unlike past technologies that merely assisted humans, modern AI can act autonomously, making its impact on jobs unprecedented.