/AI7h ago

AI Royalties Could Replace Unemployment for Displaced Workers

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⿻ Andrew Trask@iamtrask#357inAI

Mass unemployment from AI is mostly a pricing + unionisation problem. AI learns from the workers it displaces. If we could price that… instead of unemployment those people would be set for life on AI royalties.

11:19 AM · Jun 7, 2026 · 2.6K Views
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Many users see promise in AI royalties replacing unemployment for displaced workers via unions, technology and free markets, while some dismiss the scale as insignificant compared to non-public data.

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Pro union regulation + some AI research on attribution/unlearning would unlock free market/IP alternatives to UBI

Mass unemployment from AI is mostly a pricing + unionisation problem. AI learns from the workers it displaces. If we could price that… instead of unemployment those people would be set for life on AI royalties.

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REPLIES1

@BlissyOnX We need a mechanical turner union

6hViews 5Likes 1
Invincible@InvincibleEdge

@iamtrask this take actually lowkey connects

the real question is who forces the royalty structure in the first place

7hViews 5Likes 2
Blissy@BlissyOnX

@iamtrask an interesting framing but the people who set prices are the same ones who would pay the royalties

who writes that check?

7hViews 6Likes 1

@iamtrask That framing shifts the whole conversation. Problem is getting companies to actually pay for data they already scraped.

7hViews 6Likes 1
Rugbist@rugbist_

@iamtrask feels like were a few court cases away from this becoming a real labor law convo

but good luck getting the lawyers to price out "vibe" and "pattern"

7hViews 3Likes 1

@InvincibleEdge I think this is just workers unions and a bit of technology existing… then free market incentives take over

6hViews 6Likes 1

@ls_brd A worthy cause but honestly not a big deal. There’s literally a billion times more data in the world than the public internet. The really valuable stuff is still for sale.

6hViews 6Likes 1

@rugbist_ Honestly. I think we’re not that far from good metrics here. It’s just that almost nobody at the labs works on it… for obvious reasons.

Major world changing low hanging academic fruit out there.

Nobel prize level fruit

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