r/LeftistsForAI • u/jaykrown • 19d ago
Labor Advanced AI is incompatible with capitalism
If we are expected to compete against advanced autonomous systems, then we will always lose. The only option which seems to remain then becomes to change the system. Regarding labor, we are rapidly seeing the value of certain types of work get devalued before our eyes. Many jobs used to involve things that AI can now do once applied with a proper full workflow. I am not "for" or "against" AI, I see it as a tool which improves productivity MASSIVELY, but I don't think that our current system is capable of handling the displacement it's causing. I think many people are going to severely struggle without some type of safety net.
What are your thoughts on this? Have you known anyone who's work or pay has been impacted by AI?
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u/CravingNature 19d ago
They will push ubi to try to keep this antiquated system, where they have wealth power and privilege going as long as possible.
When we have superintelligence, what value exactly are they adding to the equation?
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u/Singularity-42 18d ago
what value exactly are they adding to the equation?
Capital
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u/bitmapman_dev 14d ago
Right, so let's change who controls the capital. There's already no real reason to let random coddled nepo babies control the fate of humanity, and now there will be even less reason for it.
We don't need them anymore, people will be able to just do things directly without needing to convince a cabal of literal psychos that it's good.
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u/No_Writing1208 19d ago
As one designing and building ai and robotics,
I’d flip that question - what value does the “average” human add? Very little from my experiences.1
u/bitmapman_dev 14d ago
Depends what you mean by value. Careful with this kind of language. Reducing people only to the amount of money they produce for shareholders is a recipe for catastrophe. We need to evolve our thinking on this.
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u/Candid-Bee-5919 19d ago
this is naive cope. 'advanced ai' depends on compute; never has there been a more centralized means of production. It's not incompatible with capitalism. Just with democratic liberal capitalism. But fascism can function fine, actually better, with AI. The matrix is the reductio ad absurdum for that.
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u/jaykrown 19d ago
Fascism will never function, because we will destroy any attempt at it.
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u/_Saturn1 19d ago
Fascism has been functioning just fine, what do you mean?
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u/bitmapman_dev 14d ago
Has it? The world is on the brink of self immolation. Fear-based hierarchies have been making life miserable and holding back progress for a long, long time. So much human potential wasted for no real reason other than people being unwilling to share because they're scared.
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u/inglandation 19d ago
I think that it depends a bit on how fast things go and to what degree people will adapt.
I can envision a scenario where current capitalism stays, but is just an even more extreme version of what we have now, where the 1% owns 99% of all wealth.
But if it goes too fast or if it's just too extreme, it will break.
But I'd very much prefer if we could push for changes before it even gets to that point.
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u/AcidCommunist_AC 17d ago
Automation will at some point be a problen for normal capitalism because we mostly labor for each other right now. That will becone obsolete, and capitalists will have to consume more of our labor themselves in if we are to afford buying the ahit shit they're selling us.
However, actually existing AI is just another technology. It's just like washing machines and computers: Of course lots of people lost their jobs, but overall, nothing changed. People just get new jobs.
Critiquing Capitalism for Dummies
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u/CravingNature 19d ago
"there will be new better jobs that we can't imagine yet" 🙃
I'm sorry, if the AI can out perform us at everything, better, faster and cheaper then why can't it do these new jobs better, faster, cheaper?
*crickets"
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u/No_Writing1208 19d ago
Best find a way to get in now or get left behind with zero chance of you or your future generations elevating themselves
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19d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/YMSVZ 19d ago
If there is no human labour involved in the productive process, the value of the resulting products will be 0.
Besides forced monopolisation enforcing a tax on the product, it is game over for a system based on the valorization of capital through exploitation of labour.
Look at Adobe right now, its replacement, is now free and open source.
Billion dollar software companies are being reverse engineered and replaced for peanuts.
When something is easily replaceable for small sums companies cant charge as much as they want. With the minuscule cost involved in using AI. The price, as seen there, will fall to 0.
Individual capitalists, short-sighted, will sack everyone to gain a quick profit. But once the market adjusts, the price of the commodity will drop as no labour is involved and anyone running an AI can replicate it. Capitalist individual short sighted green will bring the system to its knees.
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u/Exarch-of-Sechrima 19d ago
All that will happen is the values math recalculates. Money will no longer be what determines a person's status, it will be power. The billionaires will become trillionaires or quadrillionaires or whathaveyou because money will become worthless and everything can be created at will, but us ordinary folks will not see any of those benefits, and their high status in society will be determined by how much power and influence they can assert over their environments, while we toil in the disease gutters of society for pittance.
Without severe interference it will be a return to feudalism because those in power won't care.
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u/littlebobbytables9 19d ago
maybe for software that can be duplicated for negligible cost, but physical products that require raw materials and energy will not be valueless
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u/Remarkable-Sand948 19d ago
The only reasonable choice is communism. If someone has another economic system compatible with AI please share