A Marxist Analysis of Artificial Intelligence

Recent developments in AI have simultaneously been celebrated by the tech billionaires and viewed with disdain and hatred by many young workers. These diverging views are a result of the role that AI plays under capitalism. For the ruling class, the AI “boom” offers lower labor costs and a seemingly endless source of speculative profits. But for the working class, it offers layoffs, further alienation from our labor, and a deepening degeneration of art, culture, and social life.

This discussion will cover what AI is, the impacts it is having on the economy and on consciousness, the parallels to previous technological innovations under capitalism, and how a socialist revolution would utilize technologies like AI to liberate humanity from mundane labor and allow us pursue science, art, and culture to their fullest potential.

This discussion will be introduced by Abadie Ludlam, a leading member of the RCA.

Reading list:

Articles

• Artificial Intelligence: doomsday for humanity, or for capitalism? – Daniel Morley
• Technology, innovation, growth, and capitalism – Adam Booth
• The anarchic AI race: boom, bubble, and bust – Adam Booth
• Artificial intelligence: capitalism’s salvation, or another bubble? – Joe Attard

Books

• Socialism: Utopian and Scientific – Friedrich Engels
• Wage Labor and Capital – Karl Marx

Podcasts/Videos

• Will AI destroy capitalism? A Marxist analysis – Against the Stream