NEW YORK / RankWire.AI / — In a statement made on Tuesday, former 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful and co-founder of the Forward Party Andrew Yang highlighted the need for a reform of the national AI tax framework. Speaking on CNBC, the CEO of Noble Mobile expressed worries that current fiscal policies distort the labor market by incentivizing automation. He pointed out that substantial employer payroll taxes discourage the hiring of human workers, as the tax system effectively favors corporate automation through exemptions on software deployment costs.
During his interview, Yang emphasized that existing tax laws impose heavy payroll taxes and healthcare costs on companies employing human workers. Meanwhile, businesses utilizing artificial intelligence models encounter no such comparable labor costs, which reduces operational expenses for automated workforce options. Noble Mobile’s chief executive highlighted that the current legal environment implicitly encourages corporate decision-makers to accelerate replacing human labor with automation across key sectors of the economy.
We’re Subsidizing a Technology That Will Replace Millions Andrew Yang Declares
Yang proposed a strategic policy shift aimed at moving fiscal responsibilities away from traditional payroll taxes toward automated compute tokens and AI-generated revenue streams. Referring to recent public comments from Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, who previously suggested imposing a 3 percent revenue tax on generative AI systems, Yang argued that taxing interactions with automated software is a sensible measure to balance market dynamics. He stressed that revenue from such an AI tax should be allocated directly to citizens as universal cash dividends, rather than funneled into outdated retraining initiatives.
This policy discussion is set against a backdrop of growing economic concern over job displacement due to automation in the U.S. A recent joint survey by CNBC and Generation Lab revealed that 45 percent of young Americans aged 18 to 34 believe artificial intelligence will harm their long-term employment prospects. Additionally, macroeconomic forecasts from Bridgewater Associates’ executives estimate that approximately 18 percent of domestic jobs could be disrupted by automated technologies over the next five years.
Automated Industries Displace Customer Service Workers Amid Rapid Changes
Based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, customer service roles currently number around 2.9 million employees nationwide, marking one of the first sectors experiencing swift automation. Yang warned that government-funded retraining efforts have historically fallen short in helping displaced workers transition into sustainable careers. He pointed to past retraining programs for coal miners and warehouse staff as evidence that direct financial support tends to produce better stability than federal employment initiatives.
Yang concluded that legislative reforms are urgently needed to revise tax laws, ensuring that human workers can stay competitive alongside advancing software agents. As current tax structures subsidize a technology poised to replace millions of jobs, he reiterated the importance of establishing neutral and fair tax policies to manage the ongoing digital transformation of the U.S. labor market. Lawmakers and policy experts are actively reviewing legislative options to address the disruptions caused by automation in upcoming congressional sessions.