SamAltman has a plan for when AI takes your job. It’s called the “public wealth fund,” and according to OpenAI’s newly released 13-page policy blueprint, every citizen gets a stake in the AI-driven economy—whether they own stock or not.

The document, titled “Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age,” reads like a philosophical thought experiment dressed up as policy prescription. Altman (who co-authored it, because of course he did) compares society’s current moment to the transition out of the Industrial Age: disruptive, then followed by the Progressive Era and New Deal. The implication being we’re due for some kind of massive redistribution.

The core proposals:

  • A public wealth fund giving every citizen a “stake in AI-driven economy growth”
  • Taxes “related to automated labor”—because AI could shrink the tax base funding Social Security, SNAP, and Medicaid
  • Four-day workweeks with no pay loss, using “efficiency dividends” from AI gains
  • Expanded investment in “human-centered” sectors like healthcare and child care to absorb transitioning workers

The timing is notable. Recent polling shows a majority of voters now believe AI’s risks outweigh its benefits. Concerns about job losses, rising electricity bills, and military applications are all trending upward. Altman is essentially trying to get ahead of the backlash—offering a vision where AI augments humanity rather than replaces it.

Whether this is genuine foresight or corporate branding disguised as social policy is worth questioning. OpenAI is positioning itself as the friendly face of AI while simultaneously building the most powerful AI systems on the planet. The blueprint reads like a Silicon Valley utopians’ wishlist: universal basic income, reduced working hours, public stakes in corporate growth. It’s not a policy document so much as a PR campaign with footnotes.

But here’s what’s interesting: these ideas aren’t entirely dismissible. The structural challenges AI will create—shrinking tax bases, workforce displacement, concentrated wealth—are real. Whether OpenAI’s proposed solutions are the right ones is debatable, but this is at least an attempt at the conversation we should be having.

The UK government hasn’t responded yet. Given the regulatory landscape here (remember the Brexit “opportunity” to be more agile than the EU?), this blueprint might find more receptive ears than it would in Brussels.