A fellow blogger asked me if I use Ai to write my posts and when i said no i type out every word myself they were surprised, turns out that over the past few months they have been using it themselves (only sanity checking what the AI produced) to write their blog posts which while applauding their honesty, not only disappointed me but also got me wondering just how much we read is not by the hand and mind of the blogger.
My blog writing is thick with sarcasm and humour (aka piss taking) so i'm not even sure Ai could duplicate 'my style' but it is a scary thought that i didn't even notice and assumed it was their own work.
This does lead me to the point of this post which is the implications for Capitalism itself which is based on the premise that we work and then get paid for that work.
Ai is still in it's infancy and yet we are hearing of jobs being lost and replaced by Ai because a machine is doing it faster, cheaper and without complaint or the need for breaks or annual leave.
Back to the 19th Century Luddites, we have been warned that new inventions will replace us but each time the doomsayers have been proven wrong but the fast improving artificial intelligence is the first real technology that can do what we do, only better and faster and for the the price of a few kilowatts of electricity which looks so much better on profit spreadsheets for the business.
We have heard the warnings that that AI could eliminate half of all jobs within the next decade by writing newspaper pieces, diagnosing illness, bookkeeping, generating art and videos, teach, writing code, driving and performing most administration jobs and this isn't far-fetched, it is already beginning to replace real work while the technology is still in its infancy.
This presents Capitalism with the paradox of delivering what Capitalism has always pursued in efficiency, lower costs and higher productivity while removing human wages which Capitalism depends on to keep itself going.
If enough jobs disappear and the income for those jobs go with them, who, then, buys the products to keep the wheels of the system turning?
Ai will pretty much replace everything including any new jobs that Ai create which will free humans to follow other things freed from 'working' but also freed from wages as billions find themselves economically redundant and that could spark a new Luddite movement against the machines or worse, the collapse of society itself.
At some point in the future we will have to debate how the gains from Ai productivity will be distributed which leads us directly to the idea of a Universal Basic Income but maybe someone has thought all this through and there are plans to be put in place but at some point in the not so far future, all of those people like me who has been urging an end to Capitalism, may well get it although we may not like what it is replaced with.
Friday, 3 April 2026
Will Ai End Capitalism?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment