Why We Fear AI: On the Interpretation of Nightmares

There has been an explosion of everyday conversation and media coverage on artificial intelligence. In much of the narrative, AI technologies are discussed as existential threats to humanity, in which, inevitably, the AI might turn on us, and enslave or destroy us. Multiple open letters in this spirit have been signed by billionaires, researchers, and "public intellectuals" alike. Indeed, everyone is talking about the future AI may bring, its promises and pitfalls, but what can our imaginations about this new technology tell us about the world today, and where we're headed?

Why We Fear AI boldly asserts that these fears are actually about capitalism, reimagined as a kind of autonomous, intelligent agent. Hence, Hagen Blix and Ingeborg Glimmer argue, we need to understand these fears in terms of the political threats and opportunities in the current moment, rather than a distant and abstract future. To do so, we need to explore their meaning through the lens of class: the fear of an AI uprising may actually be about alienation for the working class (the tools we made returning as an alien and oppressive power), but equally about fears of revolt and revolution for the ruling class (the labor that they have control over emancipating itself).

How are these "dreams and nightmares" about AI structured by class and capital? If the same fear can reflect different underlying material realities, then highlighting those differences is crucial to the struggles to come. Failing to do so, would allow the ruling class to channel our political energies towards their goals, through their telling and interpretation of those fears. The aim of Why We Fear AI is radical and simple: to develop political analyses and counterstrategies that highlight the divergence of material interests in high-tech digital capitalism, and thus provide fruitful ground for a class-based politics around these new technologies--and new worlds.