Governments, companies and workers confront AI’s economic and social effects

Governments, employers and individuals are pursuing different approaches to the economic and social effects of artificial intelligence, from sharing corporate wealth to protecting jobs, skills and personal likenesses.

Anthropic committed 5% of its shares to a company-owned public benefit fund on October 18, the South China Morning Post reported. A day later, Elon Musk promised one SpaceX share next year for each of about 73 million American children, though he did not explain how the shares would be distributed.

Athletes are also seeking control over AI-generated versions of themselves. Australian footballer Cristian Volpato licensed his likeness, voice, biometric profiles and performance data to California-based Callandor, which plans to arrange approved commercial uses of his “synthetic twin” and challenge unauthorized content, according to The Guardian.

Workplace responses vary. Fast Company reported that Dropbox is considering memory and attention exercises to counter possible cognitive effects as staff delegate tasks to AI. The Japan Times cited Gallup data showing employee engagement declined globally in 2025 and argued that AI may be weakening the early-career skill development of younger workers. In South Africa, an opinion published by Daily Maverick called for regulation that favors augmenting workers rather than replacing them, citing the country’s high unemployment.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs, meanwhile, is pressing platforms including Meta and Google to adopt a three-layer disclosure system: creator declarations, automatic platform labels and reporting channels for unlabeled AI-generated content. Officials said labels should be more visible and that infringing or fraudulent content could be removed.