Is the Fear of AI Real?

We are living in unfortunate times, where man, the creator of machine, having lost confidence in himself, in his ability and intelligence, is living under the fear that the intelligence of the machines, would soon surpass his own!

Man is afraid of the capabilities of his own creation, of losing control over it, of his probable failure and incapability to keep the machine subjected to his will.

Bourgeois intellectuals and think tanks are anticipating the future horrors that this progress in technique would bring.

Amidst this fear of recent progress in the field of artificial intelligence, there emerges a general agreement among the ruling elite in all countries, to slow down this progress, if not halt it completely.

In the last century, Leon Trotsky, the co-leader with Lenin, of the great October revolution, had issued stern, prophetic warning that the human consciousness in general was lagging far behind the need of the hour. He marked this ‘lagging behind’ as the core crisis of his times.

A century ahead since then, the ‘human consciousness’ Trotsky had talked about, unfortunately has continued to lag more and more behind the times.

Since the invention of microchip, robots and drones, the last century has seen unprecedented progress in science and technology, rendering the archaic structures of capitalist nation-state, the sole incubator for this progress, grossly insufficient to accommodate it.  The result is rebellion of the new forces against these structures, finding expression in their desperate attempt to seek expansion outside national frontiers through wars, violence and bloodshed.

Ironically, despite all barricading by capitalist national states, that had immensely slowed down the pace of social development for more than a century, the forces of science and technology, have taken to ever new heights.

This forward march of science and technique, advancing side by side with ever lagging human consciousness, has produced a conflict of historic importance- translated into the fear of ruling elite of all further progress in the field. Our epoch- the epoch of science and technique- is laden with this conflict and the ensuing crisis. 

In his seminal work ‘Das Finanzkapital’ the German economist and scholar Rudolph Hilferding, presented the data to show that the productive forces of his time, and that is more than a century ago, had already touched the level where humanity need not do any manual work, while the machines could have produced and delivered the goods at doorsteps.

Since then, the economic life of man has continued to expand and integrate on a global scale with more and more socialisation of production processes.

Machines continue to substitute themselves for human labour. This substitution remains at the helm of all economic progress. Recent innovations and development in the field of artificial intelligence, has been a turning point in this progress.

Misfortune of humanity is that all scientific progress in our times, is being cramped inside the dilapidated incubator of the old society!

As humanity fails to smash this incubator, it continues to pay the price for this failure through depravity, poverty, wars, violence and bloodshed. The human life in general, faces continuous decay.

All salutary progress in science and technology, thus continues to produce unwarranted results under capitalism. Each forward step in it brings more desperation to the working people. A real boon to mankind, AI is turned, under capitalism, into a curse to working people.

Instead of easing human labour, we find every innovation in technique pushing more men out of employment. We find all application of science oriented to profiteering and focused on wars, violence and bloodshed, instead of human welfare.

The innovations in artificial intelligence have produced a real fear under capitalism- hordes of working people turning into surplus population, useless for capitalists and capitalism. If robots and drones may work, why there be any need for humans?

So, what would be their fate? Obviously, they would perish in hunger and poverty, if not in outright planned destruction like in Palestine.

But this may also snowball into a full-blown unrest, massive resistance and revolutions. The ruling elite fears this!

As the social consciousness, as a whole, fails to rise up to the historic occasion, the social relations based on private ownership of property and it’s protector, the capitalist nation-state, still survive. They tend to nationally barricade the globally integrating forces of production and trap them into their petty cobwebs.

It is this lagging human consciousness that constitutes the very basis for the fear of artificial intelligence taking over the intellectual capabilities of mankind. Needless to say that if human consciousness and intelligence fail to march ahead of the intelligence of machines- the artificial intelligence- the outcome would go unfavorable. The core challenge before mankind, thus remains, to raise the level of its own consciousness and intelligence to keep the pace with the needs of the age of AI. 

The humanity, as a whole, has come to a crossroad today- either it must overthrow capitalism paving the way for unhindered progress of science and technique, that coming to the aid of humanity, would substitute all human labour with machines - or to slowdown the pace of this progress to keep capitalism in place amidst all plunder, wars and violence.

Former is the progressive response of the working class to this crisis, while latter is the regressive answer to it by the ruling elite!

While ruling elite fears the science and technology, the working-class refusing to share these fears, reposes great hope and faith in the future of science. Opposing the desperate appeals and demands for a slowdown or halt to AI, working class places the destruction of capitalism through a socialist revolution on the agenda of the day. Instead of brakes on technological advance, working class demands the discounting of working hours. In the epoch of AI, it would be legitimate and justified for it to demand complete elimination of all manual labour and its substitution by the machines guided by AI.

Finally, while the ruling elite is interested to defend capitalism at the cost of all progress, the working people have keen interest in the defence of all progress in science and technology!