Beck weighs in on Google futurist's stunning prediction: ‘Basic income will be worldwide by 2030s’

As tensions continue to increase over the threat of artificial intelligence replacing jobs in the coming years, one celebrated futurist is predicting that the entire world will have "universal basic income", or a regular salary for everyone whether they work or not, by the end of the 2030's.

Speaking at the 2018 TED Conference, Google's chief futurist and director of engineering Ray Kurzweil, who boasts an 86 percent accuracy rate for his nearly 150 predictions since 1990, made another bold prediction about the role of AI in our future: "In the early 2030s, we'll have universal basic income in the developed world, and worldwide by the end of the 2030s. You'll be able to live very well on that. The primary concern will be meaning and purpose."

"In the early 2030s, we'll have universal basic income in the developed world, and worldwide by the end of the 2030s. You'll be able to live very well on that. The primary concern will be meaning and purpose." — Ray Kurzweil #TED2018

— TED Talks (@TEDTalks) April 13, 2018

Here are a few more of Kurzweil's more noteworthy predictions:

• By 2029, computers will have reached human-level intelligence, a.k.a. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
• By 2030, nanotechnology and other medical advances will have cured nearly all diseases.
• By 2045, artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence. This is called "the singularity".

“Kurzweil believes that this new technological singularity will usher in, and I want to quote here, a 'period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed.' Wow, that's quite a quote," said Glenn on today's show. "Here's the problem with Kurzweil's prediction: He claims that the time-frame between human level artificial intelligence and [the singularity] will be about 15 years. But there are others that say it could be 15 hours ... we don't know."

Watch the video clip above to find out more.

To see the full episode visit Glenn’s channel on TheBlaze or watch full episodes of “Glenn” live weekdays 5–6 p.m. ET or anytime on-demand at TheBlaze TV.

Not a subscriber? Sign up for a FREE trial here.