The Search for (Artificial) Intelligence, in Capitalism
Engster, Frank and Moore, Phoebe V. 'The Search for (Artificial) Intelligence, in Capitalism', Special Issue“Machines & Measure”, Capital & Class, edited by Phoebe V. Moore, Kendra Briken, Frank Engster, 2019
18 Pages Posted: 6 Jan 2020
Date Written: July 10, 2019
Abstract
Artificial intelligence (AI) is being touted as a new wave of machinic processing and productive potential. Building on concepts starting with the invention of the term AI in the 1950s, now, machines can supposedly not only see, hear, and think, but also solve problems and learn, and in this way, it seems that actually there is a new form of humiliation for humans. This article starts with a historical overview of the forerunners of AI, where ideas of how intelligence can be formulated according to philosophers and social theorists begin to enter the work sphere and are inextricably linked to capitalist production. However, there always already has been an AI in power in on the one hand, technical machines and the social machine money; and on the other, humans; making both sides (machines and humans), an interface of their mutual capitalist socialization. The question this piece addresses is, then, what kind of capitalist socialization will the actual forms of AI bring?
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