South Korean Policymakers Suggest Issuing 'Citizens' Dividends' from Excess Profits in the AI Industry

Kim Yong-bum, the head of the South Korean presidential office's policy room, proposed on Sunday that the structural excess profits generated by the artificial intelligence (AI) industry should be distributed among all citizens through systematic arrangements, and named this concept "Citizen's Dividend" (civil dividend).

Kim Yong-bum stated in his Facebook post: "The benefits of the AI infrastructure era are not created by individual companies alone, but stem from the industrial foundation that the entire country has built over the past half-century. A portion of these profits should be returned to all citizens through systematic arrangements."

He warned that the excess profits in the age of AI are highly concentrated, and shareholders, core engineers, and asset holders of memory chip companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix will reap substantial returns, while the majority of the middle class will only feel indirect effects, further exacerbating the "K-shaped" social polarization.

Kim proposed that the funding source for this plan would be the excess taxes collected from corporate taxes paid by the aforementioned semiconductor industry leaders, and listed the Norwegian Government Pension Fund as a reference model. He indicated possible distribution directions, including support for youth entrepreneurship assets, basic income for rural and fishing villages, support for artists, strengthening of retirement benefits for the elderly, and AI era transition education accounts.

He also set preconditions, noting that without the realization of excess taxes, the "civil dividend" would be out of the question; however, if the direction is correct, allowing the excess profits to be wasted without principle would be an irresponsible choice.

Kim Yong-bum cited the advice of Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, stating that both enterprises and nations in the AI era require "a new economic model," and expressed that South Korea has the opportunity to become the first country to systematically return the excess profits of the AI era to its citizens.

Currently, the South Korean government has not made any official response to the aforementioned proposal, and the specific legislative path remains to be clarified.