Andrew Yang, the outsider US presidential candidate running on a promise to save America from Silicon Valley, has predicted “mass riots and violence” if nothing is done to mitigate job losses caused by technology.

The former tech entrepreneur, who is seeking the Democrat nomination in 2020, said the USA could suffer “catastrophic” disruption from angry workers made obsolete by automation.

He described his flagship policy, a universal basic income of $1,000 per month for every adult US citizen, as an “emergency measure” necessary to reverse the country’s declining life expectancy and surging suicide and drug overdose statistics.

And he framed himself as the only Democrat candidate willing to address the problems that led to the election of Donald Trump, inviting comparison with the far more popular Joe Biden, who is currently the front-runner.