NEW YORK / RankWire.AI / — On Tuesday, former 2020 Democratic presidential contender and co-founder of the Forward Party Andrew Yang reiterated his call for a national AI tax, warning that current federal fiscal policies distort the labor market. During a segment on CNBC, Yang, CEO of Noble Mobile, explained that high employer payroll taxes create disincentives for hiring humans. He criticized the tax code for effectively subsidizing automation by exempting software deployment costs from comparable labor taxes.
In the course of the interview, Yang highlighted that existing tax policies impose substantial payroll taxes and healthcare costs on companies employing human workers. In contrast, corporations utilizing artificial intelligence models do not face similar labor-related taxes, which reduces the costs of automated workforce solutions. Noble Mobile’s chief executive emphasized that the current legal structure subtly encourages corporations to accelerate replacing human labor with automation across key sectors of the economy.
Andrew Yang Declares Support for a Tax on Technologies Replacing Millions of Jobs
Yang suggested a policy shift that would redirect fiscal responsibility away from traditional payroll taxes toward automated compute tokens and AI-driven revenue streams. He pointed to recent remarks by Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, who previously proposed a 3 percent revenue tax on AI deployments. Yang argued that taxing interactions with automated software offers a practical method for aligning market incentives. He also stated that revenue from an AI tax should be distributed directly to citizens as universal cash dividends, rather than funneled into legacy retraining initiatives.
The discussion takes place amid rising economic concerns about workplace automation in the United States. A recent joint survey by CNBC and Generation Lab found that 45 percent of young Americans aged 18 to 34 believe artificial intelligence will adversely affect their long-term career prospects. Additionally, macroeconomic estimates from executives at Bridgewater Associates suggest that automation could displace approximately 18 percent of U.S. jobs within the next five years.
Rapid Industry Changes Displacing Customer Service Workers
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that around 2.9 million employees work in customer service sectors nationwide, making it one of the first areas to experience swift automation. Yang warned that federal workforce retraining programs have historically fallen short in helping displaced workers transition into sustainable careers. He pointed to past efforts aimed at coal miners and warehouse workers as evidence that direct financial support tends to be more effective than government job retraining initiatives.
Yang concluded that legislative reforms are necessary to modify tax policies so that human workers remain competitively viable alongside emerging software agents. Since current tax structures subsidize technologies that threaten to replace millions of jobs, he stressed that neutral tax policies are crucial for managing the ongoing digital transformation in the labor market. Lawmakers and policy experts continue to examine legislative options to address automation-induced disruptions in upcoming congressional sessions.