Elon Musk says robots will push us to a universal basic income--here's how it would work

That said, there is currently one privately-funded, short-term pilot program being run by the Silicon Valley accelerator, Y Combinator, in California. The goal is to see how people react in the U.S., says Sam Altman, President, Y Combinator Group. The program gives "unconditional" payments to selected residents of Oakland. The administrators write, "we hope basic income promotes freedom, and we want to see how people experience that freedom." If it is successful, the plan is to follow up the pilot with a larger, longer-term program.