From tagging photos on Facebook to driving with Google Maps, people should join forces in "data unions" to demand payment for letting online tools collect their data, according to an economist advocating for radical reforms to improve society.

Glen Weyl, a principal researcher at the research arm of the U.S. tech giant Microsoft, said people have been "fooled" into handing over data that is then used with artificial intelligence to copy human behavior and possibly eliminate some jobs.

"Humans are doing all this work and then we are being told that we are doing nothing, that we play no role, and that these systems are just going to automate us away. This is profoundly dishonest," Weyl said in an interview.