Oracle CTO Larry Ellison urges taxing machines to support incomes
At Oracle AI World in Las Vegas, Oracle co-founder and chief technology officer Larry Ellison shared a bold idea: as AI and automation make businesses more efficient, he thinks we should start taxing machines instead of human workers.
The goal? Use that money to help support people's incomes so everyone benefits from tech progress.
Ellison cites Friedman negative income tax
Ellison explained that shifting taxes from people to robots could take over a decade, as machines slowly take on more jobs.
He's not too worried about humans being replaced: he sees automation mostly freeing us from tasks nobody really wants, like rideshare services.
Quoting economist Milton Friedman's negative income tax idea, Ellison suggested this approach could help support lower-income folks during the transition.