The AI era needs new policies! OpenAI proposes four major initiatives: a three-day workweek and a robot tax

OpenAI proposals include a so-called “robot tax” and a shortened workweek with three-day weekends. However, the CEO is embroiled in an internal scandal, and the company’s valuation—up to $852 billion—plus its high costs have caused secondary-market investors to increasingly favor its rival, Anthropic.

OpenAI unveils an AI policy proposal to reshape wealth and work under a new system

As governments around the world work to address the economic impact brought by AI, OpenAI has released a set of policy proposals outlining how to reshape the way wealth and work are handled as the “AI intelligence era” arrives.

OpenAI’s proposal is basically a wish list and also a public statement—meant to help elected officials, investors, and the public understand how this $852 billion–valued company views the era shift in which artificial intelligence changes the labor force and the economy.

OpenAI’s four major policy initiatives

For the economic transition in the intelligence era, OpenAI’s main initiatives are the following four:

Tax reform and a robot tax

OpenAI suggests shifting the tax burden from labor to capital. The company warns that as AI-driven growth may expand corporate profits and reduce reliance on workers’ income, it will erode the tax base that funds social security, medical subsidies, and housing assistance.

To this end, OpenAI proposes higher taxes on corporate income and top executives’ capital gains, and also raises the possibility of imposing a robot tax, so that robots replacing human workers would pay the same amount of taxes.

Establish a national public wealth fund

To ensure that all citizens can share in the economic growth brought by artificial intelligence, OpenAI proposes establishing a public wealth fund.

This would allow even people who do not invest in the market to automatically receive public equity stakes in AI companies and infrastructure, and any investment returns generated by the fund would be directly distributed to citizens, ensuring wealth does not concentrate in the hands of a few.

No pay cuts—subsidize a four-day workweek

On labor welfare, OpenAI proposes a four-day workweek subsidy system without reducing pay. It also suggests that companies increase the proportion of pension contributions, cover a larger share of healthcare costs, and subsidize the costs of childcare or eldercare.

In addition, OpenAI also recommends creating portable benefit accounts so that benefits such as healthcare and retirement savings can move with workers as they switch industries, without being limited to a single employer.

Accelerate the power grid and infrastructure expansion

To support the massive power demand of AI development, OpenAI proposes a new public-private partnership model to raise funds and accelerate the expansion of energy infrastructure. OpenAI also suggests speeding up construction by providing subsidies, tax credits, or equity investments. It further argues that AI should be treated as a public utility—so that industry and government cooperate to ensure its pricing is reasonable and that it is widely used.

At the time this proposal was released, anxiety about AI from the outside world was intensifying, mainly driven by concerns about jobs being replaced, wealth concentrating, and the construction of data centers across the country. It also coincided with the Trump administration pushing forward national AI policies and the period ahead of the midterm elections—indicating that OpenAI is trying to position itself to strike a balance between the two parties.

Source: OpenAI OpenAI releases AI policy proposal to reshape wealth and work with a new system

Before publishing the policy proposal, the New Yorker hits Altman with a media storm

Before OpenAI released its policy proposal, CEO Sam Altman was facing heavy media scrutiny.

An in-depth investigative report from The New Yorker magazine said that in 2023, OpenAI co-founder and at the time its chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, had written an internal memo accusing Sam Altman of deceptive conduct regarding the company’s safety agreements and other key operational matters.

The New Yorker said these trust issues led OpenAI’s board to fire Altman, concluding that he had not consistently been candid with the board. The firing sent shockwaves through the company—employees threatened to quit en masse in protest—while heavyweight investors such as Josh Kushner threatened that if Altman were not reinstated, operating funds would be withheld.

There were disagreements within OpenAI on governance and security issues. Former OpenAI members—including Ilya Sutskever and Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei—believed that Altman put the company’s growth and product expansion ahead of the original mission centered on safety.

Source: Cover of the New Yorker report headline—Before OpenAI released its AI policy proposal, CEO Sam Altman was hit by the New Yorker in the media

OpenAI stock is also losing favor in the secondary market

On the other hand, according to a report by Bloomberg, OpenAI’s stock is already seeing a loss of favor in the secondary market, with investors rapidly shifting toward its biggest competitor, Anthropic.

Ken Smythe, founder of Next Round Capital, said that in recent weeks several institutional investors—including a number of hedge funds and venture capital firms holding large positions—want to sell OpenAI shares worth about $600 million but can’t find buyers to take them; buyers have indicated they have $2 billion in cash ready to put into Anthropic.

Some investors are also becoming more cautious about OpenAI’s continually rising operating costs. OpenAI has pledged to spend more than Anthropic on infrastructure over the next few years to support development.

However, even though OpenAI has a massive consumer user base, it has made relatively slow progress in winning more profitable enterprise customers. By contrast, Anthropic has an advantage in the enterprise market with higher profit margins, and its growth trajectory is viewed by the market as clearer and stronger than OpenAI’s.

Further reading:
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