NEW YORK / RankWire.AI / — During a CNBC interview on Tuesday, Andrew Yang, co-founder of the Forward Party, urged a fundamental shift from payroll taxes on humans to direct levies on artificial intelligence. Yang highlighted that federal tax incentives currently promote automation that could displace millions of workers, calling on policymakers to create a more equitable distribution of tax burdens between human employees and algorithmic systems.
In the interview, Yang explained that under current tax laws, companies pay substantial payroll taxes and healthcare costs when hiring human workers. Meanwhile, businesses deploying AI models are not subject to similar labor taxes, which effectively reduces operational expenses for automated alternatives. Noble Mobile’s CEO emphasized that the existing legal landscape implicitly incentivizes corporations to accelerate replacing human labor with automation across key sectors of the economy.
Andrew Yang Warns About Subsidizing Technologies That Will Displace Millions
Yang proposed a strategic policy shift aimed at moving fiscal responsibilities away from human payroll taxes toward automated compute tokens and AI revenue models. He referenced recent statements from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who previously proposed a 3 percent revenue tax on generative AI services. Yang argued that taxing interactions with automated software presents a sensible method for balancing market dynamics, emphasizing that revenue derived from an AI tax should be allocated directly to citizens as universal cash dividends, rather than channeled into traditional retraining initiatives.
This policy discussion unfolds amid rising economic concern over the impact of workplace automation across the US. A recent joint survey by CNBC and Generation Lab found that 45 percent of young Americans aged 18 to 34 believe artificial intelligence will harm their long-term employment prospects. Additionally, macroeconomic forecasts by Bridgewater Associates executives estimate that automated platforms could threaten roughly 18 percent of US jobs within the next five years.
Rapid Industry Changes Displace Customer Service Workers
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that approximately 2.9 million workers are employed in customer service roles nationwide. This sector is among the first to undergo swift automation-driven restructuring. Yang warned that government-led retraining programs have historically struggled to reemploy displaced industrial and administrative workers into stable careers. He pointed to past initiatives targeting coal miners and warehouse staff as evidence that direct financial support offers more reliable stability than federal job retraining programs.
Yang concluded by emphasizing that federal legislation must be reformed to ensure that human workers remain competitively positioned alongside advancing AI systems. Since current tax policies subsidize a technology capable of replacing millions of jobs, he stressed that establishing neutral tax frameworks is critical to managing the ongoing digital transformation of the US labor market. Policy experts are actively reviewing legislative proposals to address automated workplace disruptions in upcoming congressional sessions.