European Parliament votes against universal basic income to compensate for disruptions brought by AI

The European Parliament (EP) debated and adopted a report outlining recommendations for the European Commission for the introduction of civil law rules on robotics. The initial report – elaborated by the Committee on Legal Affairs – was rather complex, but the EP plenary rejected many of the controversial proposals. Among these was a proposal to introduce a universal basic income aimed to compensate individuals for disruptions brought on the labour market by robots and other artificial intelligence systems. Many MEPs chose to focus on liability issues, and the approved report contains recommendations for the Commission to consider the establishment of a ‘compulsory insurance scheme where relevant and necessary for specific categories of robots’, as well as on the creation, on long term, of a specific legal statute for the most sophisticated autonomous robots.