OpenAI CEO Sam Altman funded the largest universal basic income (UBI) experiment in history, and now the data is in. UBI gained mainstream traction as the central plank of Andrew Yang’s 2020 Democratic primary campaign, and with the growing capabilities of AI, his concerns about how automation will impact employment are more relevant than ever. While I don’t necessarily agree with apocalyptic economic predictions regarding AI, various forms of UBI have long been the preferred form of a social safety net among laissez-faire, free-market economists, especially given its merits in eliminating bureaucratic inefficiency. Then again, one of the better—or at least less bad—things that the federal government does is Social Security, and even that had to be sold to the American people through flat-out lies and rapidly proved to be nothing more than a Ponzi scheme. What lessons do we need to learn from almost a century of federal welfare policy, and how should that guide our next steps?