Senior Korean policymakers propose: Distribute "citizen dividends" to all citizens using the excess profits from the AI industry

Golden Finance reports that on May 12, the Chief Policy Officer of the Korean Presidential Office, Kim Yong Fan, proposed considering the establishment of a so-called “citizen dividend,” with funding sourced from the excess profits generated by the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. “The benefits of the AI infrastructure era are not solely created by individual companies but stem from the industrial foundation built by the entire country over the past half-century. Therefore, a portion of these profits should be redistributed to all citizens through institutional arrangements,” Kim Yong Fan stated in a post on his Facebook. He pointed out that as AI infrastructure continues to develop, South Korea is expected to break through the traditional cyclical export-driven growth model and move toward a new economic structure led by technology that can sustainably generate excess profits. However, he also emphasized that the excess profits in the AI era have obvious concentration characteristics: shareholders of storage chip companies, core engineers, and various asset holders are very likely to receive substantial returns, while the broad middle class may only experience indirect effects.
Note: The stock prices of South Korea’s storage chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix reversed after an early rally, falling more than 5%. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index once dropped over 5%. (Dongxin News)