AI threatens to devalue labor itself, not just displace workers

Evidence

By this point, however, the public was already skeptical of Big Tech, and its AI-first strategies made companies seem even more determined to steamroll over civilization rather than act in service of its users. Neoliberal economics had already shipped well-paying blue-collar work overseas; now generative AI threatened to replace workers in routine service roles. White-collar fields like law and medicine seemed next in line. More than just displacing jobs, AI had the potential to radically devalue the very concept of labor. Jean Baudrillard’s 2001 warning echoed loudly: “When computer technology and the automatism of machines are all that is needed for production, work becomes a useless function.” — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 693

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Labor opposition to automation can itself reactivate class conflict by weakening capital — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 201; Platform microtask laborers train AI that will eventually displace them — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 217