Recent advances in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have caused
a lot of ink to flow, between enthusiasm for its potential applicationsand the old fear of replacing humans with machines. But beyond these
moral or philosophical considerations, the development of AI in a
capitalist economy raises material questions concerning exploited
workers. How does this tool become a weapon at the service of the
bourgeoisie? ---- Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a digital tool for
automatically processing data and performing various tasks: data
classification, value estimation, generation of digital content.
While automation has so far mainly impacted working-class sectors, AI is
now worrying people in certain intermediate or intellectual professions.
During the 2023 strike, screenwriters asked that AI be used as a tool to
help them, not replace them or devalue their work[1]. Today, it is the
voice actors who are worried and rightly so. Films are now entirely
dubbed using AI, for example Every Time I Die with the Deepdub
software[2]. For radiologists, AI manages to achieve comparable or even
superior performance for detecting tumors in the lungs[3].
A tool based on exploitation
Concern about the capabilities of AI is not new[4]. DeepMind's AlphaGo
beat Lee Sedol, one of the best Go players, in 2016. Before that, IBM's
DeepBlue computer beat Kasparov at chess in 1997. These symbolic games,
considered to require great intelligence, have each time given the
feeling of taking a step forward, to the point of raising moral
questions to anticipate the emergence of a strong, autonomous AI. Today,
it is no longer symbols, but concrete professions that are threatened
and the moral issue is no longer so well posed. The question is shifted
from the capacity of AI to enslave humans by itself, to the capacity of
AI to be used by humans to enslave others.
____
DeepSeek is the name of a Chinese artificial intelligence company and
its conversational agent, which exploits a large open source language
model. To date, DeepSeek is one of ChatGPT's biggest competitors.
ILLUSTRATION DEEPSEEK@ SLAVOJ ZIZEK SUBSTRACK
____
The starting point of AI dates back to the invention of punch cards,
which marked the beginning of programming. This new technology
introduced new means of production, such as the Jacquard loom, invented
in the 19th century. An extension of punch card technology, AI
technology is used by new means of production such as ChatGPT and
Deepdub. However, the commercial use of AI requires high, miniature and,
above all, cheap computing power. This computing power is obtained by
consuming an enormous amount of resources necessary for the manufacture
of factories, machines for miniaturizing programming circuits, their
power supply and the production itself. These natural resources come
directly from human exploitation in certain countries of the South,
which displaces the arduousness of work and makes it invisible to
Westerners. A striking example is that of child labor in cobalt mines in
the Congo to extract the materials needed for the lithium-ion batteries
in our electronic devices (70% of the world's cobalt comes from the
Congo)[5]. The populations of the countries that produce these resources
are exploited, the resources plundered: we speak of neocolonialism and
extractivism.
A dispossession of skills and means of production
The complicity of computer scientists is based on the myth of
automation, supposed to improve the living conditions of workers, or
even reduce working hours. A theory contradicted by the history of
capitalism and liberalism. Competition and the search for profit
inevitably lead to asking them for more as soon as possible. As
automation increases, proletarians are also increasingly alienated from
these means of production.
An archaeology researcher testified in a conference about the skills of
his elders[6]. He explained that by the sound of their shoes on the dirt
at a dig site, they could estimate the composition of the soil and
whether there might be objects under their feet. Now, dig sites are
mapped by drone and using AI. Through practice, archaeologists gain
skills in interpreting the results, but lose the skills related to
observation and their sensory experience. The first are conditioned by
the technology used and therefore by a factor external to the person,
the second are specific to the workers. Archaeologists are of course not
the owners of the equipment used. This is an illustration of how the use
of technologies enabled by AI dispossesses workers of their skills. Here
again, technical progress goes against human progress, the loss of
skills and autonomy. This progress, used by the bourgeois class, makes
it possible to consolidate the mechanisms of domination, here by
removing the independence of the exploited.
This is how capitalism works: for those who own the means of production,
it is a question of increasing their capital by increasing profits. This
involves reducing production costs through extractivism, human
exploitation or the automation of repetitive tasks. The cost of workers
is replaced by the costs of purchasing and maintaining tools. To
maintain this momentum, the bourgeoisie, with the help of the State, is
repressing social movements that oppose automation.
-----------------------------
The Summit for Action on Artificial Intelligence was held in Paris on
February 10 and 11, 2025. On this occasion, Emmanuel Macron announced
investments of 109 billion euros for the coming years. As such, there is
money for certain projects deemed to be priorities to the detriment of
the well-being of the population.
----------------------------------
The Perspectives of Social Movements
How to act? The CSP+ are isolated from social movements, and more
generally workers have difficulty developing a class consciousness,
because we are immersed in liberal and individualistic propaganda from
birth. Moreover, establishing links between the means of production is
not enough; screenwriters and automobile workers, although they are
subject to automation, do not have the same life experience. Unions can
create these links, but how can we mobilize those who are not impacted
when solidarity and camaraderie need to be rebuilt?
Unionism yes, but a revolutionary and inclusive unionism. A unionism
that fights just as much against the precariousness of artist-authors
who are worried about being gradually replaced by AI[7], as against
digital operators who exploit workers in Kenya under the pretext of
improving the relevance of algorithms. A unionism that integrates the
class struggle, the convergence of struggles and direct action. A
unionism in solidarity with all workers and carrying the vision of a
just world without a State, without capitalism, without borders and
without systemic oppression.
May and Olive (Toulouse supporters)
Validate
[1]"As Writers Strike, AI Could Covertly Cross the Picket Line,"
Hollywoodreporter.com, May 3, 2023.
[2]"Cinema: How AIs Are Doubling the Dubbers," Cnetfrance.fr, April 15,
2023.
[3]"Deep learning for the detection of benign and malignant pulmonary
nodules in non-screening chest CT scans," Nature, October 27, 2023.
[4]"GPT Chat: Artificial Intelligence, Human Absurdity," Alternative
libertaire no. 340, July-August 2023.
[5]"Why is cobalt, this metal essential to technology, so
controversial?», National Geographic, December 3, 2024.
[6]Conference, "Artificial Intelligence: Methods, Achievements, Problems
and Risks", 2021.
[7]"Creative Professions: For Continuity of Income for Artist Authors",
Alternative libertaire no. 357, February 2025.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Intelligence-artificielle-L-IA-au-service-de-la-bourgeoisie
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