Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, workers have had to contend with the inimical effects of technology on their jobs. From the power loom to the personal computer, each wave of automation has not only increased productivity, but also empowered the owners and managers who dictate how these technologies reshape the workplace. Today, workers worldwide are haunted by the specter of artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence has been a mainstay in our popular imagination for decades. Prognostications of an AI-driven future range from apocalyptic robot takeovers to thriving post-work societies where people live off the wealth produced by machines. In spite of these daydreams, robots with full human cognition are still well within the domain of science fiction.
When people speak of AI today, what they’re most often referring to are machines capable of making predictions through the identification of patterns in large datasets. Despite that relatively rote function, many in the space believe that inevitably AI will become autonomous or rival human intelligence. This raises concerns that robots will one day represent an existential threat to humanity or at the very least take over all of our jobs. The reality is that AI is more likely to place workers under greater surveillance than to trigger mass unemployment.
An overwhelming majority of workers are confident that AI will have a direct impact on their jobs, according to a recent survey by ADP, but they do not agree on how. Some feel that it will help them in the workplace while 42 percent fear that some aspects of their job will soon be automated.
These concerns are not without merit. Grandiose statements of oncoming job losses made by tech executives in public forums fuel worker anxiety. Feelings of job insecurity are compounded by reports that a majority of US firms are planning to incorporate AI in the workplace within the next year. In fact, Goldman Sachs predictsthat generative AI could “substitute up to one-fourth of current work.”
Yet until now the concrete results of AI have been mixed at best. Driverless cars have not materialized to replace humans on the road. McDonald’s cut ties with IBM after their new automated order taking system failed to make fast food orders more efficient. And Google’s new AI Overview tool – which seeks to “do the googling for you” – keeps spitting out comical falsehoods.
These shortcomings demonstrate that AI is not as advanced as the tech industry would have us believe. Why then are companies and investors so intent on marketing it as a technology that is on the verge of replacing humans?
There is a straightforward answer to this question —AI is hyped up by firms to attract capital from investors and investors want to grow their profits while diminishing the power of organized labor. To put it even more succinctly — AI doomerism is just AI boosterism dressed differently.
AI development is an expensive business, and entrepreneurs need to attract significant venture capital to be able to keep their businesses above water. This has spurred some firms to exaggerate or misrepresent their AI capabilities, causing the Securities and Exchange Commission to crack down on two companies for so-called “AI-Washing.”
Yet investors and Big Tech remain undeterred. Most AI firms continue to be unprofitable yet venture capitalists are still flooding the sector with billions of dollarswith the hope it will one day transform the industry into a viable and innovative business.
Cloud architect Dwayne Monroe argues in The Nation that the idea of an AI-powered economy “is attractive to the ownership class because it holds the promise of weakening labor’s power and increasing – via workforce cost reduction and greater scalability – profitability.”
The AI-will-replace-us-all-one-day frenzy is a form of propaganda designed to demoralize workers over a future that may never arrive. Instead, our focus should be on where AI is actually deployed today – that is, in the realm of worker surveillance.
Artificial intelligence represents the latest iteration of managerial control. The form of algorithmic management over labor may differ depending on the industry, but it functions to make surveillance more efficient and more intrusive.
Chevron and Starbucks are already circumventing the privacy rights of their employees by using AI software to monitor the communications of their workers across a number of platforms to flag discontent in the workplace. Amazon delivery drivers, meanwhile, are forced to “consent” to the installation of AI-powered cameras. Amazon says they are used to increase driver safety, but the cameras are designed to financially penalize drivers for mistakes they did not commit or ordinary behavior like fidgeting with the radio.
Moreover, military AI technology is being sold to corporations to subvert and disrupt unionization efforts before they gain momentum. Artificial intelligence is effectively used for digital union busting, identifying and firing labor organizers throughkeyboard tracking, Zoom call spying, and alert systems tracking when a large number of employees hold internal meetings.
All of this transforms the workplace into an electronic panopticon where workers are constantly visible to an unseen watcher encroaching on their autonomy, privacy, and labor rights.
But the narrative surrounding AI does not need to be one of despair. Workers are beginning to fight back and take proactive steps against the invasive and harmful nature of workplace AI. For example, the Teamsters negotiated a contract with UPS that included strong protections against AI surveillance. The Communications Workers of America succeeded in ensuring that any data collected by AI will be used for training purposes only and not with the intent of disciplining workers. And the Writers Guild of America instituted guardrails on AI to ensure it does not put any downward pressure on wages and remains within control of the workers.
While tech executives may promise that AI will fundamentally transform the economy, it is unlikely to completely replace most workers given its narrow proficiency at elaborate pattern matching. Experts tend to overestimate the capabilities of autonomous machines and very few occupations have ceased to exist due to automation. Even so, AI’s ability to devalue labor and diminish working conditions is troubling.
Like the working-class movements of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, we must struggle to ensure that technological advancements uplift workers, preserve the dignity of human labor, and protect worker privacy. Unlike AI, we can act on our own accord. We can educate, advocate, and organize to make certain that new technologies are implemented for the benefit of all, not just the privileged few.
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