Recently, I read an essay written by Emily S. Lin and Marshall Ganz about democracy in the age of AI that drew upon the intersection of emerging technologies and existentialism in literature. In capturing that reckoning, the authors crafted the essential question: “As the makers of AI, how will we keep AI from unmaking us?”
Innovation Consequences
The economic and social systems that technology emerges within determine how that technology is implemented into society. The consequences reaped by innovation are dependent on its delivery and regulation. Today, we are witnessing a unique convergence of technological innovation and capitalism. They not only rely on one another to expand but will ultimately bring about the evolutionary end to each as we know it.
Perspectives on the morality of capitalism vary between schools of thought. But objectively, the success of capitalism is contingent upon the capitalist ability to exploit laborers. Historically, this process has been sustained by the owners of production through oppressive pipelines from white supremacy to mass incarceration – sending underprivileged people into pipelines of poverty that force them to commodify their “unskilled” labor for low wages that are ultimately funneled back into capitalist pockets.
A Unique Threat
Call it cruel, call it savvy, but capitalism – in any stage of its evolution – has always been more than an economic system. It is a social oppression. It’s an idea of success that is enshrined in the American flag and internalized in terms of winners and losers. In today’s late-stage capitalism, economists deem the winners as those associated with emerging AI technology. The losers are those who cannot benefit from its unfolding.
Dissimilar to its predecessors, Artificial Intelligence poses a unique threat to the cycle of capitalism as it is designed to replace human mental functions, not just human mechanical skills. These sophisticated computers funded by Big Tech (Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Google), which do not unionize or require healthcare, are now responsible for tens of thousands of corporate layoffs. This shift is emphasizing the narrowing of who is allowed to be a “winner.” As the gap between the top 1% and the bottom 99% increases, it no longer matters how “skilled” your labor is. The workforce is controlled by the already affluent. The introduction of AI into the workforce will only serve the maintenance and exacerbation of the inequality that fuels that gap.
The Price of Revolution
In their essay, Lin and Ganz remind the reader how important it is to remember that AI is not separate from humanity, but a tool that “humans are entirely capable of, and indeed responsible for, shaping and using.” Artificial Intelligence is not an objective evil. It is an unregulated innovation in the hands of those profiting from an unequal system. And the consequences will have unprecedented educational, political, and social implications. The technologies being developed are indeed revolutionary, but can life as we know it remain after this revolution? Do we even want it to?
Under a different economic system, sophisticated computer automation would mean that the burden of labor could be lifted. This would allow people to devote their time to their passions and loved ones. Under capitalism, our value is so heavily tied to what labor we contribute that instead of a burden being lifted, the fear of being cut out of our livelihood takes its place. This is a time for the working class to reflect, educate, and revolutionize independently. That’s a hefty challenge, but a necessary one, through organized action and educated legislation.
It is time to recognize that the system currently ruling the US, and almost every modern nation, does not seek to benefit the majority of people it affects. We must prepare for the unexampled social, economic, and political destabilization that befalls us. “As all human things have an end.”
Featured image/photo by Muhammad Afzaal from Pixabay.
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