A lone figure stands on a reflective horizon beside a large letter A, forming the title The AI Pledge for Humanity.

For ourselves and one another

AI was built from all of us. Its gains must serve all of us.

The AI Pledge for Humanity calls on those who benefit from artificial intelligence to help build an AI dividend: a permanent, unconditional income floor that turns nonhuman labor into human freedom.

The case

Abundance without distribution becomes instability.

The pledge is built around one simple systems claim: when machines increase productive capacity, people still need purchasing power, bargaining power, and the freedom to say no.

1

Common inheritance

AI rests on collective knowledge, public research, culture, data, language, labor, and discovery.

2

Shared dividend

Its gains should become an income floor for everyone, not another engine of concentrated wealth.

3

Real freedom

Unconditional income gives people exit power, bargaining power, and room to build lives beyond survival.

4

Immediate action

Those who see the disruption coming should invest now in making the safer path politically real.

The pledge text

We choose a destiny shared by all, and denied to none.

The AI Pledge for Humanity For Ourselves and One Another

In the spirit of common cause, and with eyes open to the Age of AI upon us, we sign this pledge.

We stand at the dawn of abundance. Artificial intelligence is poised to reshape civilization, ushering us into a future previously imagined only as science fiction. Built on humanity’s collective knowledge and creativity, AI is now unlocking capabilities beyond what once seemed possible.

AI's capabilities come from all of us. Each of us has contributed in some way to the creation of technology that now emulates us, augments us, and displaces us.

AI was trained on the labor of all; every word written, every image drawn, every song composed, every video published. It leans on discoveries we all funded, born from government research grants, public universities, and the collective achievements of generations past.

Its promise is real: AI will multiply our capabilities, automate drudgery, and generate wealth at scales previously unimaginable. As machines approach the ability to produce almost anything with minimal human labor, we face an extraordinary opportunity to transform this productivity into universal human flourishing. But this outcome is not inevitable. Another path is ever more extreme inequality, and it’s the path we’re currently on.

For fifty years, productivity has soared, yet wages have not. Most of the gains have gone to the top 1%, while the middle class has eroded. If AI is allowed to further widen the chasm between rich and poor, owners and workers, then its great promise becomes a grave threat.

This threat is compounded by those building AI who see its economic impacts coming and fail to act accordingly. When the people creating the disruption won't invest seriously in preparing for it, they send a clear message: it must not be that urgent. But it is urgent. And every month of inaction narrows the window to act.

We reject this path. The bounty of AI must serve all because it was born from the labor of all. Its gains are for sharing, not hoarding. They are a dividend of civilization and a rightful inheritance. Justice demands they be common wealth.

To ensure machines serve humanity, we must provide people directly with the purchasing power to obtain what machines create — and, just as importantly, the power to negotiate the terms of our own labor and the policies that govern our lives.

When every person has enough to live unconditionally, the power to say no enters the economy for the first time. Workers gain real power. People trapped in abusive situations gain an exit. The desperate default position that forces people to accept whatever they are given — bad wages, unsafe conditions, exploitation — loses its grip. And the millions of parents, caregivers, volunteers, and community builders doing essential work without pay are finally recognized as the workers they have always been.

An unconditional dividend does not just distribute money. It distributes freedom.

Imagine a society where everyone has a financial foundation to build upon, where the entrepreneur in every community has the security to take risks, where artists can create without starving, where scientists can explore the unknown, where parents can invest time in their children, where workers can retrain without fear. This is the promise of shared AI prosperity.

Our Pledge to Humanity

We, the undersigned, now pledge to make this vision reality:

  • To invest meaningfully from any AI-related earnings — whether from work or asset ownership — into initiatives that make an AI dividend real
  • To support organizations and programs that provide unconditional cash transfers, pilot guaranteed basic income programs, and demonstrate how an AI dividend can unleash human potential
  • To champion Universal Basic Income—permanent, regular, unconditional payments to all—as the rightful dividend from our shared technological inheritance
  • To back not only the principle of an AI dividend but the political and economic will to make it real — understanding that an economy capable of producing unprecedented wealth is capable of sharing that wealth, and that those who benefit most from AI bear the greatest responsibility to ensure it does

This isn't charity. It's an investment in humanity, and a far less expensive one than the status quo. Without an income floor, we pay instead through worse health, higher crime, lower productivity, and the lifelong costs of children growing up without enough.

An AI dividend that grows with productivity is not only logical, it’s just. It’s how we turn nonhuman labor into real human freedom. It is venture capital for the human spirit—seed funding for millions of potential entrepreneurs, artists, scientists, caregivers, and innovators.

When people have money to spend, they thrive. New businesses are born. Main streets bustle. Purchasing power in the real economy empowers risk-taking and sustains small businesses. Universal income is fuel for widespread economic participation.

This idea transcends ideological lines. It’s not of the left or the right, but of the human. It’s been championed by voices across the political spectrum from Martin Luther King Jr. to Milton Friedman because it offers a direct, efficient, and nonpartisan way to guarantee freedom, economic security, and dignity for all.

It is not a panacea and need not solve every problem to be worth doing. Healthcare, education, housing, climate—these all demand attention. But an unconditional income floor via a universal dividend is the foundation upon which other structures can stand. And UBI need not wait for AI to justify it — it has long been a good idea. But AI makes it urgent.

We commit to the path where no one is left with nothing, and where machines work for everyone. And so we begin right now, investing our resources to get us onto that path.

We all made AI possible. We all deserve a share of what it makes possible.

We choose abundance over scarcity.

We choose universal prosperity over concentrated wealth.

We choose a destiny shared by all, and denied to none.

Founding signatories

People putting weight behind the pledge.

Andrew YangEntrepreneur, former presidential candidate; author, The War on Normal People
Vernon L. SmithNobel Laureate in Economics; Presidential Professor of Economics, Chapman University
Dustin MoskovitzCo-Founder, Facebook; Co-Founder, Coefficient Giving; Co-Founder, Asana
Justin RosensteinCo-Founder, Asana; Founder, One Project
Gigi Danziger & Albert WengerEutopia Foundation
David S. RoseFounder & Executive Chairman, Gust; Founder, New York Angels; author, Angel Investing
Martin FordFuturist and author of Rise of the Robots
Moshe VardiUniversity Professor, Rice University; former Editor-in-Chief, Communications of the ACM
Richard WilkinsonProfessor Emeritus; Co-Author, The Spirit Level; Co-Founder, The Equality Trust
Guy StandingEconomist; Co-Founder, Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN); Professor, SOAS University of London
Andrew SternPresident Emeritus, Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Jaya BalooFounder & COO, AISLE; former CISO of KPN, Avast & Rapid7
Gerd LeonhardFuturist & author; CEO, The Futures Agency
James NorrisFounder & ED, International AI Governance Alliance; Founder & ED, Center for Existential Safety; pledging 90% of income
Thor HalvorssenFounder & CEO, Human Rights Foundation; Founder, Oslo Freedom Forum
Sophia SwireFounder, GEDI (Gender Equity Diversity Investments); Founder, Future Brilliance
Senator Nick HinrichsenColorado State Senate; Senate Majority Whip
Scott EllisCEO, MasteryTrack; Member, Patriotic Millionaires — Funding UBI orgs — C4SI, Income Movement
Professor Jane GolleyEconomist, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Dalibor PetrovicFounder, The Summit Leadership Alliance; Harvard Business Review Advisory Council

Signer voices

What signers are saying.

“Realizing the promise of this pledge is what inoculates our civilization from economic and ecological collapse. Ushering in an era of abundance within the means of our planet where all of humanity is free to pursue life, liberty, happiness, and meaning.” — From a signer of The AI Pledge for Humanity “When a sensible argument can be made for Universal Basic Income across conservative, liberal, and libertarian principles, then it follows that UBI should be pursued as an effective policy that transcends ideologies because of its common sense.” — From a signer of The AI Pledge for Humanity “A guaranteed, basic, livable income (UBI) is a necessity now. Decades of research demonstrate the failure of trickle down economics and the value of a guaranteed, basic, livable income. The AI horizon has made its implementation much more pressing.” — From a signer of The AI Pledge for Humanity “As an entrepreneur and educator, it is clear to me that now is the time for UBI. UBI is the way that we acknowledge the value we have all contributed to AI. UBI is the way we acknowledge that we all deserve to flourish. There is more than enough for all of us. There is no reason poverty should exist at this stage in our history. ‘Poverty is not a lack of character. Poverty is a lack of cash.’ — Rutger Bregman. Let’s eliminate poverty with cash and bring in a new era of abundance.” — From a signer of The AI Pledge for Humanity “We need a multipronged approach to make this happen. We need activists screaming from the top of the ladder, demanding that we reach the top. We need strategic incrementalists setting up the next right step. We need creatives and experimentalists trying out new mechanisms to move forward, and we need educators and communicators bringing folks along on this necessary journey toward prosperity and thriving!” — From a signer of The AI Pledge for Humanity “I believe an unconditional and universal basic income floor is essential for humanity. We have to get away from judging everyone and instead support people. The positives are great for UBI, but I also believe it’s essential for our democracy. AI is taking away jobs and we have to find a way to support people and share the vast wealth it creates. Otherwise the dictators and leaders of hate and division will win.” — From a signer of The AI Pledge for Humanity

Sign and share

800+ signers and growing. Add your name to the public call for an AI dividend.

If the form does not load, open the petition directly: actionnetwork.org/petitions/the-ai-pledge-for-humanity.