Robots – Friend or Foe?

By Leslie Willis

If you haven’t heard some of the chatter about Chat Bots (Chat GPT) and the new advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI), then you must be very young or very old, or not listening. But what is the big deal? We’ve heard that the Chat Bots can write anything for you from letters to essays (causing teachers to worry about students cheating). We’ve seen examples of “deep fakes,” where clips of famous people are shown and heard (in their own voice) saying things they never said (worrying lots of people for lots of reasons). These Chat Bots can carry on a conversation with you and fool you into thinking you are talking to a real human being. Yeah, they are that good.

But the truth is that this technology has been around and in development for quite a while, it’s just recently that big companies like Google and Microsoft are releasing it to the public. They are doing this for many reasons; commercially to make money of course, but also, as we use these free versions, we feed it data (information) that it digests and uses to grow itself into a better and better tool.

While this technology is presented as a new toy for us to play with, there are some worried voices calling for regulation and a “pause” in the competitive race to introduce more and more advanced AI into society. Why? The reasons for slowing down the development of AI do not just come from people who are afraid that AI will take over the world, dominate humans and even kill us all. Most of these warnings are coming from people who want to slow down the inevitable consequences of AI and the effects on society that this is going to cause. Why? What are these effects that everyone agrees are definitely going to happen and are, in fact, happening right now?

One threat to profit driven companies is that it is difficult, even impossible, to hold on to information. In the process of developing the internet and electronic technology, big companies have learned how hard it is to keep their information and their technology to themselves. The internet allows widespread sharing of everything.

Widespread involvement with the internet has led to companies devising ways to make profit through targeted advertising to each of us. For example, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube are “free,” but not only is your every move recorded, digested, and used for marketing directly back to you, it is also used to improve all marketing effectiveness everywhere. Additionally, your data increases the advancement of AI’s abilities in general.

AI is programmed to use the science of human psychology to influence and control us. It is not an accident that we have become “addicted” to our phones. Most of the cautionary voices, however, are not troubled about these effects on us. No, they are concerned that information cannot be controlled by the companies who are releasing it. They are upset that information about absolutely everything imaginable can be shared and used by anyone.

They are also very anxious about what the latest advancements in technology will mean for the economy as it chops away more and more jobs. Companies do not want to take care of workers that they don’t need anymore, and they are very afraid of rebellions which are inevitable. They know people will not starve quietly.

We are constantly told not to worry about technology eliminating jobs. The experts keep telling us that new jobs will be created. Let’s examine what the last 50 years have shown us about this soothing declaration. As factory jobs disappeared by the thousands (starting with the Rust Belt), what new jobs have been created? Fifty years ago, we did not have a “gig economy.” The social contract of yesteryear, where it was possible for many people to have a full-time job with benefits for your whole working life, has been replaced by most jobs that are either part-time, contingent or contract work.

We were told that that this fate could be avoided by obtaining a college education. So, millions of young people took on a lifetime of debt to get a college degree, only to find that the promised prosperity for them was a big lie. Most jobs requiring a degree do not pay enough to service their debt and give them a good life. And they have no security, no guarantee that any job will last. Collapses in the economy keep happening and they ruin workers’ lives. (Strange that the wealthiest people keep growing richer in spite of these crashes.) Anyway, the result is that those with and those without college degrees now compete for the gig jobs at the bottom of the economic ladder.

Most crashes in today’s economy are a direct result of job eliminating technology. Every advancement in technology creates the ability to produce goods and services faster than ever before, without humans. But as wise people have observed - robots don’t go shopping. The less people employed, the more products go unsold, leading to more layoffs, and unstoppable downturns in the economy. This way of running a society, where the owners of companies rule over powerless workers, who are continually being replaced by automation, simply does not work.

If we don’t change this system, it will only get worse. Here is a partial list of jobs that technology will reduce or eliminate completely in the next 5 years: postal workers, mail carriers, bank tellers, data entry, electronic assemblers, inspectors, executive assistances, administrative assistances, clerks, team assemblers, cashiers, telemarketers, freight stockers, taxi drivers, word processors, typist, librarians, tax preparers, locomotive engineers, warehouse stockers, meter readers, casino dealers, engine and machine assemblers, fast food workers, farm workers, computer programmers, proofreaders, textile workers, toll both operators, legal secretaries, dispatchers, etc.. Even jobs that require creative skills like in the entertainment business and management skills for all kinds of businesses are being whittled down. *

Over the next 10 years, automated vehicles will destroy over 10 million jobs in the transportation industry! As AI is incorporated more and more into health care, there will even be job losses in that field too. Eventually, any job that humans do could be replaced. Under the present system this would spell disaster for millions of people on the planet. 

But it doesn’t have to be this way. It all depends on who controls this incredible technology. If it were publicly owned and operated for the benefit of all we could all enjoy a life of plenty without breaking our backs. This is not sci-fi or pie in the sky – it really is possible. What does it require from us, the working class? In an article by Caitlan Johnstone, in speaking of the working class she puts it this way, “They’ve got to realize that this power structure does not ultimately serve their interest… Only when enough eyes open to this reality can revolutionary change via direct action become possible.”**

It may seem like the practical thing to do is to keep our heads down, our mouths shut and try to survive the best we can. But that path is a dead end for us and for all those in the boat with us. No, the best thing we can do for the sake of our families and even humanity is to educate ourselves and develop a vision about what kind of society we need for a brighter future.

*Facts about job loss from Finances Online by Allan Jay, and “Jobs that will Disappear Thanks to AI” by Billy Haynes (Career Addict)

**Caitlin Johnstone, “Nobody with real power cares if you refuse to vote for Biden,” March 2024.