NEW YORK / RankWire.AI / — During a CNBC interview on Tuesday, Andrew Yang, co-founder of the Forward Party, called for a fundamental overhaul of the current tax system, advocating for a shift from payroll taxes on human workers to direct taxes on artificial intelligence. Yang expressed concern that federal tax incentives are currently supporting automation technologies that threaten to eliminate millions of jobs, urging policymakers to balance the fiscal responsibilities between human employees and algorithmic systems.
In the interview, Yang highlighted that existing tax regulations require companies to pay substantial payroll taxes and healthcare costs when employing human workers. Conversely, corporations implementing artificial intelligence solutions are not subject to these labor taxes, which effectively reduces the operational expenses of automated workforce alternatives. Noble Mobile’s CEO emphasized that the present legal environment implicitly incentivizes companies to accelerate replacing human labor with automation across key industries.
Yang Declares We Are Subsidizing a Technology That Will Displace Millions
He proposed a targeted policy shift to redirect fiscal burdens from payroll taxes toward automated compute tokens and revenue models based on artificial intelligence. Referencing recent statements by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who suggested a 3 percent revenue tax on generative AI systems, Yang argued that taxing interactions with automated software provides a practical solution to realign market dynamics. He further stated that the revenue generated from such an AI tax should be redistributed directly to citizens as universal cash dividends, rather than allocated to traditional retraining programs.
This policy discussion is set against a backdrop of growing economic concerns about automation’s impact on employment across the U.S. A recent survey by CNBC and Generation Lab found that 45 percent of young Americans aged 18 to 34 believe artificial intelligence could harm their long-term job prospects. Additionally, macroeconomic estimates from Bridgewater Associates executives suggest that automated platforms could disrupt around 18 percent of total U.S. jobs over the next five years.
Displaced Customer Service Workers Face Rapid Industry Changes
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that customer service roles, employing about 2.9 million workers nationwide, are among the first sectors experiencing swift automation-driven transformation. Yang warned that government-led retraining efforts have historically failed to transition displaced workers from traditional industrial and administrative roles into sustainable careers. He pointed to past retraining initiatives for coal miners and warehouse workers, arguing that direct financial assistance tends to offer more stability than federal job programs.
Yang emphasized the need for federal legislation to reform tax policies, ensuring that human workers can remain competitive as software agents advance rapidly. Since current tax structures subsidize a technology that could eliminate millions of jobs, he stressed the importance of establishing a neutral tax policy to manage the ongoing digital transformation of the labor market. Legislative proposals are currently under review by policy experts in preparation for upcoming congressional sessions addressing workplace automation disruptions.