By now, the refrain “socialism or barbarism” has been worn down to the nub. The struggle for a more just and democratized economy and polity isn’t over, but for the most part, the ruling class has opted for barbarism.
Of course, demands for something better persist and the movements trying to realize them continue to evolve. The old struggles — like control over capital and workplaces — remain, but new ones have emerged, reshaping the terrain. Artificial intelligence is, right now, the urgent example of this phenomenon — or at least it should be, as we sleepwalk toward an AI oligarchy.
When it comes to AI, there’s good news, bad news, and news still unwritten. The good news is that the variety of technologies that comprise AI could serve pro-worker, pro-human ends. Marxism, after all, features a long tradition of hope that mechanization and, later, automation can liberate workers. The bad news, however, is that it depends on who owns the robots. Right now, that’s neither workers nor the broader public. But it could be, which leads us to the yet-to-be determined news: who controls AI?
If the predictions of tech and industrial capitalists come true — and AI does indeed remake work and displace workers in the direction of a quasi-post-scarcity world — then democratizing AI will be essential to prevent social, political, and economic collapse. Without such democratization, we risk entrenching a system even more oligarchic than the one that already dominates so much of contemporary life. Distributing both the power and the gains of this…
Auteur: David Moscrop
