A multi-year study sponsored by Openai’s Sam Altman examined the effects of a UBI stipend on the spending patterns of the beneficiaries, finding that most of the money was spent on basic needs. The study, which gave $45 million to thousands of Americans, also determined that the stipend increased the ability and willingness of recipients to help others.
Sam Altman Sponsored Study Found UBI Increases Spending on Basic Needs and Philanthropy
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Sam Altman Backed Openresearch Releases Universal Basic Income Spending Study
Openresearch, an investigative lab that sits Openai’s founder and CEO Sam Altman on its board, has released the results of a study seeking to ascertain the effects of giving a Universal Basic Income (UBI) stipend to Americans all across the country. The first phase of the study, which involved sending a monthly cash allowance of $1,000 to 3,000 participants in Texas and Illinois, indicates that the money received is mostly spent to fulfill the beneficiaries’ basic needs.
According to Openresearch’s portal, UBI payments allowed beneficiaries to spend an extra $310 each month. Most of this money was spent on three key categories: Food and beverages, transportation, and rent, with this behavior accentuating in beneficiaries with lower income.
Philanthropic spending, which means the money directed to help others, was also increased when receiving UBI cash transfers. The study determined that individuals in the program spent 22% more on this goal compared to a control group. This category captured “spending on gifts to friends and family, loans to others, donations to charity, and alimony payments.”
The organizations stated that this UBI stipend had a ripple effect, positively affecting the lives of others around the beneficiaries. Also, the effects of these cash transfers allowed recipients to lighten the previous burden of helping relatives with economic problems.
Altman has been worried about the effect of introducing artificial intelligence (AI) on the world’s economic tissue, stating that it can change the “social contract” of today’s society. While he has voiced his support for traditional UBI experiments, in May he assessed that future UBI might be distributed in the form of computing power that could be used or distributed by the recipients, calling this “universal basic compute.”
What do you think about Openresearch’s UBI study? Tell us in the comments section below.
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