Automation and Autonomy

Beschreibung

This book argues that Marxist theory is essential for understanding the contemporary industrialization of the form of artificial intelligence (AI) called machine learning. It includes a political economic history of AI, tracking how it went from a fringe research interest for a handful of scientists in the 1950s to a centerpiece of cybernetic capital fifty years later. It also includes a political economic study of the scale, scope and dynamics of the contemporary AI industry as well as a labour process analysis of commercial machine learning software production, based on interviews with workers and management in AI companies around the world, ranging from tiny startups to giant technology firms. On the basis of this study, Steinhoff develops a Marxist analysis to argue that the popular theory of immaterial labour, which holds that information technologies increase the autonomy of workers from capital, tending towards a post-capitalist economy, does not adequately describe the situation of high-tech digital labour today. In the AI industry, digital labour remains firmly under the control of capital. Steinhoff argues that theories discerning therein an emergent autonomy of labour are in fact witnessing labour’s increasing automation.

James Steinhoff is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto, Canada 

This book argues that Marxist theory is essential for understanding the contemporary industrialization of the form of artificial intelligence (AI) called machine learning. It includes a political economic history of AI, tracking how it went from a fringe research interest for a handful of scientists in the 1950s to a centerpiece of cybernetic capital fifty years later. It also includes a political economic study of the scale, scope and dynamics of the contemporary AI industry as well as a labour process analysis of commercial machine learning software production, based on interviews with workers and management in AI companies around the world, ranging from tiny startups to giant technology firms. On the basis of this study, Steinhoff develops a Marxist analysis to argue that the popular theory of immaterial labour, which holds that information technologies increase the autonomy of workers from capital, tending towards a post-capitalist economy, does not adequately describe the situation of high-tech digital labour today. In the AI industry, digital labour remains firmly under the control of capital. Steinhoff argues that theories discerning therein an emergent autonomy of labour are in fact witnessing labour’s increasing automation.

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James Steinhoff

Themen in »Automation and Autonomy«

Marx Marxist political economy Weber labour capital capitalism post-operaismo immaterial labour automation AI Industry computer technologies microworkers machine learning value

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“The author is very clear and concise in showing the reader what his objectives are and are not, and in guiding the reader through the arguments and evidence. He is explicit in reviewing what he has completed and what the next steps will be. The reader should be aware that this book is basically a philosophical treatise. … It is worth the effort to read this book.” (Anthony J. Duben, Computing Reviews, August 1, 2022)
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‘Automation & Autonomy adds cutting-edge theoretical and empirical weight to the political economy of algorithmic technology, combining the New Reading of Marx with elements of labour process theory to investigate how employment relations are organized and experienced in the artificial intelligence industry. Rather than granting labour autonomy from capital, Steinhoff argues, new technologies serve to grant capital autonomy from labour, with few of the utopian consequences proposed in contemporary visions of an automated 'post-work' future. Essential reading for those interested in new ways to critically and clear-mindedly comprehend some of the key questions of our time’. (—Frederick Harry Pitts, Lecturer, University of Bristol School of Management, UK)

‘In this book Steinhoff reveals the profit seeking impulse at the base of contemporary artificial intelligence and provides a timely intervention into debates on digital labour. Arguing againstNegri and other post-operaismo theorists, Steinhoff shows that contemporary changes in technology and forms of social organization are not in the process of freeing “immaterial labour” from the control of capital. Just the opposite: capital is using contemporary technological developments to increase its power over living labour. Anyone interested in the impact of algorithmic automation technologies on the capital/wage labour relationship should read this impressively comprehensive study’. (—Tony Smith, Professor, Iowa State University, USA)

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