Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has shifted his stance on universal basic income after personally leading an 87.5 billion won ($60 million) experiment, concluding that distributing cash alone cannot meet what society truly needs.
Three Years, 87.5 Billion Won Spent, but Quality of Life Unchanged
Altman told Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, that he "no longer believes in basic income as strongly as before," according to U.S. business outlet Business Insider on Thursday.
Behind this shift was a large-scale experiment he designed and funded himself. As interest in universal basic income (UBI) grew in 2019, Altman launched a three-year trial through a nonprofit organization.
He raised a total of $60 million (about 87.5 billion won), including $14 million (about 20.4 billion won) of his own money, and distributed cash to 3,000 low-income individuals aged 21 to 40 in Texas and Illinois from November 2020 to October 2023. Of the participants, 1,000 received $1,000 (about 1.46 million won) per month, while the remaining 2,000 received $50 (about 73,000 won) each.
The results showed that participants receiving $1,000 per month spent an average of about $310 (about 450,000 won) more. The additional spending was concentrated on food, housing, and transportation. Working hours fell by an average of 1.3 hours per week, equivalent to about eight days per year — not a significant change.
The core issue lay elsewhere. While overall spending rose, there was no direct evidence that access to medical services had improved or that physical and mental health had gotten better. In other words, there was no clear proof that cash transfers had fundamentally changed quality of life.
Altman noted that while handing out regular cash payments may appear attractive, it falls short of meeting what society truly needs. "As the balance between labor and capital shifts, there are limits to what cash transfers can do in building the structure we will really need going forward — one where everyone shares in the benefits together," he explained.
AI Equity Instead of Cash: Shifting Focus to Wealth Creation Structures
As the experiment fell short of expectations, Altman's attention turned in a different direction: instead of distributing cash, involving people in the very structures that create wealth.
The concept he has repeatedly proposed is a model that would provide individuals with a share of AI computing capacity, allowing them to use, sell, or trade it. In April, OpenAI also proposed creating a public asset fund that would allow all citizens to participate in AI-driven economic growth, through its white paper "Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age: Ideas to Put People First." The approach shifts from redistribution to sharing ownership.
"What people really want is prosperity, autonomy, the ability to live interesting lives, a sense of fulfillment, and the ability to have a positive impact on society," Altman said. He added, "If AI services remain limited and difficult to use, existing wealthy classes will raise prices and demand them, which could lead to even more serious stratification."
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