by Peter Knight | May 16, 2026 | Featured, News
Photo by Steve A Johnson on Unsplash
Steven Bartlett has interviewed separately three leading experts on artificial intelligence (AI) and a business strategist as part of his podcast series, The Diary of a CEO. These fascinating in-de[th interviews all discuss UBI as a policy for mitigating the social impact of expected massive unemployment accompanying the achievement of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI — a hypothetical type of AI that can match or surpass human cognitive abilities across virtually any intellectual task) through an exponential process known as recursive self-improvement. AGI poses an existential threat to humanity if it proves impossible to solve the “alignment problem” — the challenge of ensuring that AI systems act in accordance with human goals, ethical values, and intentions.
To view the interview of Geoffrey Hinton, click here.
To view the interview of Stuart Russell, click here.
To view the interview of Tristan Harris, click here.
To view the interview of Daniel Priestly click here.
by Peter Knight | May 13, 2026 | Featured, News
Jorge Drescher of Kyiv, Ukraine has written two thought-provoking articles posing conceptual issues related to wages, work, and basic income.
The first article “Wage Negotiation — Observed by a Third Party”, raises a number of doubts concerning the process by which wages are set. “Consent is present. But is freedom?” Is it just? How would the wage negotiation have proceeded if the employee had a Universal Basic Income? Drescher sugests “Perhaps we need to rethink negotiations altogether: not as a game of asymmetric information, but as an encounter on equal footing. As a dialogue that doesn’t just ask, What are you worth? but: What do you need to be free?“
In the second article, “When Income from Work Becomes a Structural Problem”, Drescher argues that the “primary” form of work is undertaken to satisfy basic needs of existence. But when basic needs are satisfied, people undertake more meaningful activity: “cultural, symbolic, identity-forming.” Income, like work, is a socially constructed phenomenon. “Therefore, the social question is not: How do we enable someone without income to earn money through work? But rather: How do we ensure that all people can live in dignity and security, regardless of their economic utility?” The first step toward answering this question is establishing a UBI, a social dividend that enables freedom.
To read”Wage Negotiation — Observed by a Third Party” click here.
To read “When Income from Work Becomes a Structural Problem” click here.
by Jurgen De Wispelaere | Apr 22, 2026 | Events, Featured, News
On 7 June 2026, BIEN Treasurer Lindsay Stirton is running the Rio Marathon to raise money for the BIEN Congress Solidarity Fund.
The Congress Solidarity Fund exists to help low-income participants attend BIEN’s annual Congress by contributing towards essential costs such as travel, accommodation and visa applications.
BIEN’s annual Congress is the major global meeting for people advocating for, researching debating and putting into practice basic income in all its dimensions, which this year takes place 19–22 August in Toronto, Canada.
Basic income is, at heart, about security, dignity and inclusion. Supporting broader participation in the BIEN Congress is one practical way of advancing those same values. A serious global conversation about economic security should itself be open to people from a wide range of backgrounds and circumstances.
Lindsay is running the Rio Marathon to help make that happen. Every donation, large or small, will support the BIEN Congress Solidarity Fund and help widen access to the most important international gathering devoted to basic income.
You can donate here: https://bien.enthuse.com/pf/lindsay-stirton. Spread the word across our community and please donate if you can!
by Peter Knight | Apr 19, 2026 | Featured, News
Beginning with Andrew Yang’s proposal for a $1,000 a month “Freedom Dividend” during his Democratic Party primary campaign (2019-2020), Basic Income has become salient as a means to mitigate the social and economic turbulence caused by rapid adoption of robotics and AI. BIEN has published an increasing number of News and Research items on BI and related guaranteed income pilot programs around the world here on this website, Such pilots now number in the hundreds. AI, a term first coined at a Dartmouth College summer workshop in 1956, is currently becoming a increasingly prominent topic and figures to become an object of political debate worldwide.
In this article I review two books on AI just published in the first months of 2026.
Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler, We Are As Gods: A Survival Guide for the Age of Abundance
Diamandis and Kotler’s latest book challenges the reader to explore “A feedback loop of recursive AI self-improvement that accelerates progress beyond comprehension or control.” This as AI and robotics are taking mankind into a turbulent period of social and political change at warp speed. What can we do not only to survive, but flourish? Read this book as a guide.
David Brin’s latest book draws from his diverse CV, with degrees in astronomy (BS), electrical engineering (MS), astronomy (PhD), a post-doctoral fellowship at the California Space Institute and another at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies; a wide range of advisory and consulting gigs; and author of tens of science fiction and non-fiction books. In Alien Minds Brin analyses different perspectives on AI (both Artificial General Intelligence – AGI and Artificial Superintelligence – (ASI): doomers (like Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares), optimists (e.g. Ray Kurzweil and Peter Diamandis), transhumanists (if you can’t beat them, join them) e.g. Hans Moravec, Brin himself, and perhaps Elon Musk. A fascinating characteristic of this book is the inclusion in each chapter of “asides” addressed to “our newest children” – AGIs and ASIs. Brin concludes that the best way of “aligning” AGIs and SGIs to human values is through the creation of a “disputation arena” in which competition between individual Ais avoids the doom scenario
by Peter Knight | Jan 16, 2026 | Featured, News
We would like to share an important update regarding the location of the 2026 BIEN Congress.
Following a review of international travel conditions and visa accessibility for participants, a decision has reluctantly been reached to relocate the 2026 BIEN Congress from University of Pennsylvania, USA, to Toronto Metropolitan University Toronto, Canada. This decision was taken in light of challenging political circumstances in the US, to support broad international participation and to reduce uncertainty for attendees travelling from a wide range of countries.
The Congress will now take place at Toronto Metropolitan University from 19–22 August 2026, instead of 27-29 of July as previously planned.
Updated Congress details
- Dates: 19–22 August 2026 (Canada day pre-Congress taking place on August 19, Global agenda commencing August 20)
- Host institution: Toronto Metropolitan University
- Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Theme: Basic Income and the Polycrisis: The Key to Unlocking the Puzzle
The previously announced event at the University of Pennsylvania (27–29 July 2026) will not proceed.
Canada offers a more predictable and accessible entry environment for many international participants, helping to ensure that the Congress remains inclusive and representative of BIEN’s global membership. We are grateful to our colleagues in Canada for their willingness to host the Congress and for their flexibility in accommodating this change, and to our US colleagues for putting so much work into making this year’s congress happen. We note with great appreciation that the University of Pennsylvania team will continue sponsoring the Congress and form part of its Scientific Committee.
Further information regarding registration, calls for papers, accommodation, and travel guidance will be shared in due course.
We appreciate the understanding of the BIEN community and look forward to welcoming delegates to Toronto in August 2026.
by Jurgen De Wispelaere | Sep 13, 2024 | Featured, News
At its most recent congress, BIEN launched UBIdata, an innovative new tool with a mission to match reliable information about basic income with a rapidly growing global user base of individuals and organisations eager to learn more.
UBIdata gathers, processes and displays data about basic income pilots and experiments, survey and micro-simulations, political and media debates, and the development of grassroots organisations and networks. When completed, UBIdata will feature different interfaces and tools for interested audiences to engage with available information to meet their diverse needs and demands.
UBIdata is an ambitious project which is currently in its prototype starting phase. The current beta-version focuses on collecting and disseminating key data of a small selection of pilots and experiments in six countries. In its starting phase, the goal is to demonstrate and test the utility and user experience of the project on a small scale.
You can get involved and support us by sharing UBIdata with your networks, by trying out the tool, and by providing feedback at contact@ubidata.io. Your input and suggestions are vital for making UBIdata a helpful tool for everyone interested in the basic income idea.
Visit us at http://ubidata.io.
