Senior Lecturer in the General History Department at the University of Haifa in Israel and head of the American Studies Program.
In March 2023, an open letter was published by tens of thousands of scientists and technology professionals, all calling to halt all research around the world aimed at advancing the development of artificial intelligence in any form. In the letter, the scientists and technology professionals presented their arguments against the development of AI systems, such as Chat-GPT, Dall-E, and others. In response, we at Utopia editorial decided to present our arguments as well, on behalf of the written word, the economy, regulation, and human creativity. And this time: the economy.
There was indeed an attempt to wrap AI in a nonprofit organizational structure, but it’s safe to say this attempt has completely failed. You might have heard of the internal struggle that took place on OpenAI’s board [in December 2023] between the nonprofit wing, which sought to slow the pace of development, and the optimistic-capitalist camp, led by CEO Sam Altman, who wanted to charge ahead. The battle ended in a resounding victory for, who else, Altman and capital.
As a historian of American capitalism, I believe the most critical issue today is not AI technology itself (which, in fact, holds the potential to do remarkable things for humanity, if channelled in the right direction), but the fact that the world is being run by private corporations whose primary goal is shareholder value, or, simply put, making money. We’ve already seen where this leads, with the obvious example being the internet: instead of technologies working for us, in many cases we’ve ended up with technologies designed mostly to isolate us and keep us addicted to screens, games and apps. And all this just to slightly increase the odds that we’ll buy another pair of shoes.
Examining the suicide rate graph among young American women since they received smartphones about a decade ago is just one of many harsh testimonies to what happens when the internet is controlled by a small handful of giant corporations whose sole purpose is profit.
In the case of AI and capitalism, I see two main dangers.
One is the triumph of mediocrity. Bots generate extremely mediocre content. The answers they supply are usually predictable and shallow. The writing, cliché and superficial. There’s no ability for out- of- the- box thinking, for creativity. The truth is, they don’t think at all. They just repeat formulaic messages using a spruced-up version of auto-complete. In that sense, they’re basically bullshit-producing machines. And, if they succeed at taking over our content worlds, I’m afraid we’ll end up longing for the latest Marvel movies.
The second danger is the disappearance of the new middle-class. After decades of Neoliberalism, which has almost completely dismantled the public sector and labor unions, one of the only remaining paths to a life of dignity and the potential for social mobility is working in tech, in programming, design, and software development. With the new AI systems is that about to change?
I’m usually a sceptic when I hear of technologies replacing us, but all my friends in tech agree – the use of AI will enable one software engineer to soon do the work of five. From a capitalist perspective, the biggest challenge for shareholders today is to break the labor power of software developers and reduce costs. And if what my friends claim is true, then AI is the great savior of the capital billionaires who have invested in these technologies. When that happens, the already vast socio-economic gaps, unprecedented in modern times, will widen even further. I’m not sure about mass unemployment, but I do believe this will crush the bargaining power of tech workers who, unfortunately, have failed to realize that they too need unionization to protect them.
Westworld series, season 3