EU Moves To Bring In AI Laws, But Rejects Robot Tax Proposal (newatlas.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from New Atlas: The European Parliament has voted on a resolution to regulate the development of artificial intelligence and robotics across the European Union. Based on a raft of recommendations drafted in a report submitted in January to the legal affairs committee, the proposed rules include establishing ethical standards for the development of artificial intelligence, and introducing an insurance scheme to cover liability for accidents involving driverless cars. Not every element in the broad-ranging report was accepted by the Parliament though, with a recommendation to institute a "robot tax" roundly rejected. The robot tax proposal was designed to create a fund that manages the repercussions and retraining of workers made redundant through the increased deployment of industrial and service robots. But those in the robotics industry were supportive of the Parliamentary rejection, with the International Federation of Robotics suggesting to Reuters a robot tax would have been harmful to the burgeoning industry, stifling innovation and competitiveness. The European Parliament passed the resolution comfortably with 396 votes to 123, with 85 abstentions.

Comments

Re:"Robot Tax"?

[rmdingler]

Income tax.The argument is, if robotic replacement of human workers becomes widespread, the income tax formerly paid by the human should be levied against the robotic worker, or basic government services might disappear.

I assume a similar levy is presently paid by farm machinery.

Re:"Robot Tax"?

[davester666]

Well, the people with the money don't really care about basic gov't services and definitely don't want to pay for them. They would MUCH rather just live in a separate area where they only pay for their own services (or even better, the gov't pays for them), and nobody else can use "their" stuff, like their roads, buildings, schools, hospitals.

They are willing to pay for the 90% to go somewhere else and fight a war, as long as not very many of them come back.