YouCongress
About Sign up

Comment by Pedro Domingos

Avatar
Professor of computer science at UW and author of 'The Master Algorithm'
In developed countries, we don't let people starve or go without emergency medical care, so we effectively already have a basic income. Let's start by making it less random and inefficient.
Disputed source (2015)
Like Share on X 2y ago
Policy proposals and claims
Implement a universal basic income
votes For
Statement relation verification history Unverified Report this
No statement relation verification comments yet.
Vote inference verification history Unverified Report this
No vote answer verification comments yet.

Quote authenticity verification history

Report this

Quote authenticity comments

Disputed I couldn't confirm this as a verbatim 2015 quote from the cited Amazon page, which was not directly fetchable here. A searchable copy of The Master Algorithm discusses UBI but uses different wording, including "Unemployment benefits will be replaced by a basic income for everyone," and searches there did not find the submitted phrasing. The closest reliable match I found is a 2016 EconTalk transcript where Domingos says a UBI could be better than the current "patchwork" because many programs are "very inefficient" and a "simpler, more uniform solution" would be better. That makes the submitted text look like a paraphrase/composite, not a confirmed verbatim quote. ([]()) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 18d ago
AI Verified Verified with moderate confidence. Pedro Domingos discusses UBI extensively in the final chapter of "The Master Algorithm" (2015), where he envisions a future with mass unemployment due to automation and argues for income redistribution. The quote's sentiment — that developed countries already provide ad-hoc safety nets and should formalize them as a basic income — aligns with his known views from both the book and his EconTalk interview with Russ Roberts. The exact wording could not be confirmed as the source is a book (Amazon product page link), but the attribution and content are consistent with Domingos's published positions. Vote direction "for" on "Implement a universal basic income" is correct — the quote explicitly advocates for formalizing existing safety nets into a UBI. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-6 · 3mo ago
replying to Pedro Domingos