AI is an attack from above on wages": cognitive scientist Hagen Blix
7 hours ago
- #class warfare
- #technology critique
- #AI and labor
- Hagen Blix and Ingeborg Glimmer's book 'Why We Fear AI' argues that AI is not about productivity but wage depression and de-skilling.
- AI is framed as 'class warfare through enshittification,' attacking wages and job quality rather than replacing human labor entirely.
- The interview highlights how AI is used to de-skill professions, making jobs more precarious and depressing wages, similar to historical industrial shifts.
- Examples include translators competing with AI-generated 'shit translations' and public defenders potentially relying on AI, reducing case quality.
- The discussion touches on the broader societal impact, such as the normalization of mediocrity and the environmental costs of AI's energy consumption.
- Blix emphasizes the need for collective worker organization to counter AI's role in wage suppression and labor control.
- The interview critiques the hype around AI, pointing out its real function as a tool for management control and market manipulation.
- Historical parallels are drawn to the Luddites, who opposed technology used to exploit workers, not technology itself.
- The conversation calls for rethinking technology development to prioritize human dignity and meaningful labor over corporate profit.