Automation and Artificial Intelligence in Marx’s Fragment on the Machines

• In Event: Ethics of AI in Ed: Five Humans and ChatGPT Discuss

Abstract

Author
The presenter is a recent graduate of the Philosophy Department at a research one, AAU University in the South East of the United States and is currently an adjunct for the Philosophy Department and the School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies.
Objectives/Purposes
Ethical problems in education include the challenges faced by educators themselves. My project will explore Karl Marx’s explanation of capitalism’s inexorable automation of human labor to explore the ethical dimensions of production. Specifically, I will look at the passage on the machines in the Grundrisse which predicts capitalism’s progress towards the automation of all labor except that of minding the machines. This passage develops important themes laid out by Hegel and Adam Smith. Artificial intelligence represents the entry of automation into the realm of intellectual labor including education. Marx argues that the fruits of such automation for workers and consumers depends on the conditions under which it takes place. Educators may find themselves in the same circumstance which the Luddites fought against over two centuries ago. Notably, SAG and the WGA have been raising similar concerns within film acting and writing respectively. I will present two paths Marx describes – the use of automation to reduce the burden of labor for workers by shortening the working day (as happened with the eight-hour workday) and eliminating burdensome tasks, or the use of automation to lay off workers and reduce their bargaining power so that employers can save money.
Theoretical framework
This project is applying a 19th century theoretical framework from Marx to see how well it applies to current circumstances. I will look at Marx’s often overlooked ethically prescriptive claims derived from the nature of the working day, as well as his prescriptive claims about education.
Method
The method of this work is the historical class analysis as presented in the Grundrisse.
Materials
The materials for the work are primarily Marx’s Grundrisse, Capital Vol 1 and 3, Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, some texts from Hegel, and some 20th century secondary literature such as Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin and Adorno
Conclusions
Marx’s analysis leads to two equally true conclusions. First, artificial intelligence presents an existential threat to the fate of educators as well as many other professions and sources of livelihoods. Second, artificial intelligence presents educators and others with incredible opportunities to save time and effort on undesirable tasks.
Scholarly significance
This work serves as a reminder that the challenges created by artificial intelligence are just the latest process in a long chain of automation. It shows that the trends we are seeing today were not wholly unexpected even by figures in the nineteenth century, and how Marx characterized both its structure and its consequences.

Author

• Sam Badger, University of South Florida