New Delhi, May 15 -- There is a palpable fear among American workers that artificial intelligence (AI) is coming for their jobs. The answer to that fear, as I've argued, is to make job loss less scary by building a new unemployment programme. An overhaul is long overdue, and it would help not only a vulnerable labour market but also workers whose fears are realized.

But would it be enough?

AI job loss is not happening in a bubble. It's taking place in an economy thick with structural issues and marked by inequality. AI is poised to destroy good jobs, i.e. high-paying with benefits, which in the US economy are too rare. All of which is to say: The fear of AI can be mitigated if we stop leaving the bottom of the labour market behind.

Not...