While the federal government is banking on AI to lift Australia's stagnant productivity growth and end a decade of lost living standards, Dr Leigh warns the technology could also widen the wealth divide if its benefits are not properly shared.
The former academic, who wrote the book on the history of inequality in Australia, will outline his concerns in a virtual address to a JPMorgan AI conference on Tuesday.
Whether AI will increase or reduce inequality is a question that has been vexing economists for years.
While there are signs AI could reduce wage inequality between workers, Dr Leigh is troubled by findings that it could lead to widening inequality between capital and labour.
Because automation reduces businesses' reliance on workers to produce stuff, studies showed that the people who own productive technology will get a larger share of the dividend.
"Those gains accrue disproportionately to households that already own more capital," Dr Leigh will say.Â
"Higher returns compound over time. So automation widens the gap between the have-nots and the have-lots."
Just as the industrial revolution produced robber barons with hitherto unforeseen fortunes, the AI revolution could lead to today's tech titans pulling further away from the mass of the proletariat.
Populist backlash to the growing concentration of wealth has propelled the popularity of socialist politicians in the US, like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and has inspired copycat figures closer to home.
Laying out his priorities in his first Canberra press conference as federal Greens leader, David Shoebridge took particular aim at the one per cent.
"We're not going to come in here and go into bat for the corporates who bought us some new office block, or bought us a plane, or paid for the election platform," he said on Monday.
"We're going to come and take on the one per cent and I think that is the key message."
Labor is also concerned about perceptions of growing inequality. Treasurer Jim Chalmers framed budget tax reforms as essential to rebalance the tax treatment of capital and labour.
But Dr Leigh says AI could also have positive impacts for inequality.
Because it can augment workers' tasks and disperse knowledge, lower-skilled staff could catch up with more senior workers.
Sharing the ownership of capital as widely as possible will also ensure the spoils are shared as widely as possible, and not concentrated in the hands of a few.
"Universal superannuation means that many Australian workers have part of their savings invested in technology firms, making it more likely they will share in the gains," he will say.
"AI will boost productivity. Sharing the benefits fairly is the real challenge."
