Some prominent figures in Silicon Valley have suggested artificial intelligence will eventually create so much wealth that companies could redistribute it to the public, including people whose livelihoods were impacted by AI. But Jaron Lanier sees problems with that plan.

“I don't want to create more people who are just dependent on state payout to survive,” said Lanier, a technology pioneer and Microsoft Corp.’s Prime Unifying Scientist. “I want to create more, if you like, creative classes of people who are really good at providing fresh data that makes the models work better. So everybody benefits.”