In a bold move to address the looming economic shifts driven by artificial intelligence, OpenAI has released a comprehensive set of policy proposals aimed at reshaping wealth distribution and work in what it terms the “intelligence age.” The document, unveiled as governments worldwide struggle with the implications of superintelligent machines, blends traditionally progressive mechanisms like public wealth funds and expanded social safety nets with a market-driven capitalist framework. With OpenAI valued at $852 billion, these ideas serve as a public declaration, offering elected officials, investors, and the public a glimpse into how the company envisions the future of labor and the economy.
The proposals arrive amid intensifying anxiety over AI, fueled by concerns about job displacement, wealth concentration, and the rapid expansion of data centers across the country. Their release coincides with the Trump administration’s push toward a national AI framework and the approach of midterm elections, suggesting an attempt at bipartisan positioning. This effort is paralleled by more direct political maneuvers: OpenAI president Greg Brockman, who has donated millions to President Donald Trump, along with other tech billionaires, has funneled hundreds of millions into super PACs advocating for light-touch AI policies.
At the core of OpenAI’s framework are three stated goals: distributing AI-driven prosperity more broadly, building safeguards to reduce systemic risks, and ensuring widespread access to AI capabilities to prevent economic power from becoming overly concentrated. The company warns that AI-driven growth could erode the tax base funding Social Security, Medicaid, SNAP, and housing assistance, as corporate profits expand and reliance on labor income diminishes. “As AI reshapes work and production, the composition of economic activity may shift — expanding corporate profits and capital gains while potentially reducing reliance on labor income and payroll taxes,” OpenAI wrote.
To counter this, OpenAI proposes shifting the tax burden from labor to capital. While stopping short of specifying a corporate tax rate—notably, Trump reduced it from 35% to 21% during his first term—the company suggests higher taxes on corporate income, AI-driven returns, or capital gains at the top. This category of policy previously influenced Marc Andreessen to back Trump after Biden proposed taxing unrealized capital gains in 2024. Additionally, OpenAI floats the idea of a robot tax, echoing a concept Microsoft founder Bill Gates proposed in 2017, which would require robots to pay taxes equivalent to the human workers they replace.
Another key proposal is the creation of a Public Wealth Fund designed to give Americans an automatic public stake in AI companies and infrastructure, regardless of their market investments. Returns from this fund would be distributed directly to citizens, potentially appealing to those who have watched AI inflate markets without personally benefiting. This initiative aims to democratize access to the economic gains generated by AI technologies.
On the labor front, OpenAI advocates for subsidizing a four-day workweek with no loss in pay, aligning with tech industry promises that AI will enhance work-life balance. The company also suggests that employers boost retirement matches or contributions, cover a larger share of healthcare costs, and subsidize child or eldercare. However, OpenAI frames these as corporate responsibilities rather than government mandates, leaving out individuals most likely to be displaced by automation. If a job is eliminated, employer-subsidized benefits like healthcare and retirement matches could vanish with it.
To address this gap, OpenAI separately proposes portable benefit accounts that follow workers across jobs, though these likely depend on employer or platform contributions and fall short of government-backed universal coverage that would fully protect those displaced by AI. The company acknowledges that AI risks extend beyond job loss, including misuse by governments or bad actors and systems operating beyond human control. To mitigate these threats, it recommends containment plans for dangerous AI, new oversight bodies, and targeted safeguards against high-risk uses such as cyberattacks and biological threats.
Alongside safety measures, OpenAI includes growth-oriented proposals, such as expanding electricity infrastructure to meet AI’s power demands and accelerating AI infrastructure buildouts through subsidies, tax credits, or equity stakes. The company argues that AI should be treated like a utility, with industry and government collaborating to ensure it remains affordable and widely available, rather than controlled by a few firms. This framework emerges six months after rival Anthropic released its own policy blueprint, outlining various responses to AI-driven disruption.
“We are entering a new phase of economic and social organization that will fundamentally reshape work, knowledge, and production,” OpenAI wrote. The company asserts that this transition necessitates a “new industrial policy agenda that ensures superintelligence benefits everyone.” Founded as a nonprofit with a mission to benefit all of humanity, OpenAI transitioned to a for-profit company last year, a shift that has prompted critics to question whether its stated goals align with its fiduciary duties to shareholders.
Drawing parallels to historical economic upheavals like the Industrial Age, OpenAI points to movements such as the New Deal, which ensured “growth translated into broader opportunity and greater security” by “building new public institutions, protections, and expectations about what a fair economy should provide, including labor protections, safety standards, social safety nets, and expanded access to education.” The company concludes that “the transition to superintelligence will require an even more ambitious form of industrial policy, one that reflects the ability of democratic societies to act collectively, at scale, to shape their economic future so that superintelligence benefits everyone.”
