UBI4ALL announces the date of its next raffle! Mark your calendars for 23 April 2023. UBI4ALL will be livestreaming the raffle of one year Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) on that day from 7pm CEST. Join us and, with a little luck, win 800 euros a month – and experience what a year of a guaranteed minimum income feels like. To register for the raffle click here.
Jurgen De Wispelaere is visiting professor in Freiburg and he hosts an online public lecture series from April 24 through May 10 which can be of interest for many people in the basic income sphere. For details click here.
On April 27 he will also present a hybrid evening lecture on “Basic Income Trails: The problem of assuring (continued) political commitment”. To register click here.
“Interest in universal basic income (UBI) programmes around the world is continuing to rise, with governments and private donor groups examining the social and economic effects of unconditional cash payments to citizens. Ireland recently joined the ranks of countries providing a basic income.
In a three-year pilot initiative, 2,000 artists and creatives are receiving payments of €325 ($355) a week. The programme, which has cross-party support, is similar to basic income plans trialled in other countries including Finland, the United States and Wales. About 10 million women in India’s Tamil Nadu state will receive basic income payments when a programme backed by state leaders launches in September. GiveDirectly, a New York-based NGO funded by private donors, is providing unconditional monthly payments to people in rural Kenya in a twelve-year programme.
Recipients of universal basic income – particularly those living in financial precarity – say the payments have improved their well-being and helped them focus on boosting their education and skills. Proponents of UBI say it helps spur local economies, given that recipients are free to use the money how they choose. Critics say the pilot schemes are merely providing free money with little oversight, disincentivising people from work and driving a wedge between recipients and other community members who miss out.”
This episode of Al Jazeera’s The Stream examines the increasing interest in basic income schemes around the world and asks if UBI is winning mainstream acceptance. Click here to view the episode.
Abstract of a recent paper:
“We investigate the potential implications of large language models (LLMs), such as Generative Pretrained Transformers (GPTs), on the U.S. labor market, focusing on the increased capabilities arising from LLM-powered software compared to LLMs on their own. … Our findings reveal that around 80% of the U.S. workforce could have at least 10% of their work tasks affected by the introduction of LLMs, while approximately 19% of workers may see at least 50% of their tasks impacted. … The projected effects span all wage levels, with higher-income jobs potentially facing greater exposure to LLM capabilities and LLM-powered software. Significantly, these impacts are not restricted to industries with higher recent productivity growth. Our analysis suggests that, with access to an LLM, about 15% of all worker tasks in the US could be completed significantly faster at the same level of quality. When incorporating software and tooling built on top of LLMs, this share increases to between 47 and 56% of all tasks. … We conclude that LLMs such as GPTs exhibit traits of general-purpose technologies, indicating that they could have considerable economic, social, and policy implications.”
The full paper can be found here.
The deadline is extended to April 30th. It is now updated in the Congress webpage.
The 24th BIEN CONGRESS in Maricá & Niterói – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 27-29 August 2025
Linkedin, Instagram, X – biencongress25 (at) gmail [dot] com
BIEN2024 was August 29–31 (Pictures and more coming soon)