The billionaire feels that due to AI, the wealth gap is increasing so dramatically that it could become a matter of national concern.
Billionaire investor and founder of investment firm Bridgewater Associates Raymond Dalio has said that while artificial intelligence (AI) and automation might increase productivity, it will also eliminate jobs, create massive wealth and opportunity gaps, to the extent that it would become a national concern.
In a Facebook post, Dalio said, “My view is that algorithmic/automated decision making is a two-edged sword that is improving total productivity but is also eliminating jobs, leading to big wealth and opportunity gaps and populism, and creating a national emergency. Largely as a result of it, capitalism is not working for the majority of Americans and is in jeopardy. Yet no one is seriously examining what to do about it.”
While serial entrepreneur Richard Branson and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg think that universal basic income could be a solution for the rising wage gap, Dalio feels re-training people could be a better option than "transferring money to people who are unproductive."
As a solution to the imminent threat to capitalism and democracy, Dalio said, “I think that a national emergency should be declared, a special commission created, and metrics established to come up with programs and measurements to make work improvements that more than pay for themselves and measure the changes that are taking place."