Can someone please explain to me in practical terms how AI makes us all rich

Reddit r/ArtificialInteligence News

Summary

A user skeptically questions how AI will make everyone wealthy, referencing claims by Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Marc Andreessen about abundance and universal basic income, and pointing out practical and political challenges for non-US countries.

I’m not a tech person, I’m just interested in AI. Part of what I don’t understand about the AI debate is the insistence by tech bros that AI will lead us to an age of abundance where few people will need to work, but everyone will have enough money. Sincerely asking: can someone break down for me in simple step by step terms how this works? Literally, where is the money coming from that makes everyone wealthy? Is the theory that the government starts paying everyone a lavish UBI? If so: (A) where does the government get this money from, literally and practically; (B) which government are we talking about? Because most of the discourse I see around this focuses exclusively on the US, and maybe China. What about governments in countries which have no A.I. industry to speak of? I live in an African country and though I don’t know much about tech, I know a lot about politics and governance. I am telling you now that there is not a chance in hell that corrupt African governments are going to be paying their citizens a generous income grant when they could just siphon off that money (wherever it’s supposed to come from, which I still don’t understand) to enrich government officials and cronies. Forgive me if this is a stupid question; I am genuinely, sincerely, trying to understand what the thinking is here. EDIT: For everyone saying “nobody actually claims this”, actually it is widely claimed. Sam Altman: “This revolution will generate enough wealth for everyone to have what they need.” Also Altman: “Everything necessary will be cheap, and everyone will have enough money to be able to afford it.” Dario Amodei has suggested A.I. will lead to “large universal basic income for everyone”. Mark Andreessen: “Things that today cost a lot of money will all of a sudden all be cheap or free.” Etc etc etc
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