A "tech tax" is necessary if the world is to avoid a dystopian future in which AI leads to a concentration of global wealth in the hands of a few thousand people, influential economist Dr Jeffrey Sachs has warned. Speaking to the Guardian, Sachs backed calls for taxation aimed at the largest tech companies, arguing that new technologies were dramatically shifting the income distribution worldwide "from labour to intellectual property (IP) and other capital income." "So rather than cutting capital income taxation, as we've been doing in a race to the bottom, we ought to be finding ways to tax capital income and IP income," Sachs added. "Things like the proposed tech tax are actually a very good idea. The specific form of it is debatable, but the idea is that five companies are worth $3.5tn, basically because of network externalities and information monopolies, and therefore are absolutely right for efficient taxation."

This robotic cafe takes customizable coffee orders at its kiosk or via a mobile app to satisfy your caffeine cravings. A robot barista makes a cup of coffee during the opening day of CES. The robot barista is a prototype from Bubble Lab from Beijing. Recently, though, it seems that same technology is also creating a new type of digital divide--one that's centered more on the economic disparity being caused by some tech advances. In order to address that divide, I wonder if it's time that we start to consider some kind of tax on technologies that potentially eliminate traditional jobs.