Adam Harmsworth, Coventry Socialist Party
“I want to level with the public. Some jobs will go.” That is what Labour’s technology secretary Liz Kendall admitted in a speech on the increased use of artificial intelligence (AI). Under Labour, unemployment has risen to 5.1% and youth unemployment to 15.9%, and now, while promoting AI investment, they promise it will cost jobs.
Kendall’s speech follows concerns raised by London mayor Sadiq Khan about AI, and a new study by investment bank Morgan Stanley suggesting that Britain is already losing more jobs than it is generating from businesses turning to AI.
Looking at UK companies using AI for at least a year, the study found companies were more productive, but that they had net job cuts of 8%. That rate is higher than any other major economy. The surveyed companies also said they were more likely to cut jobs requiring 2-5 years’ experience, hitting young workers even harder. No wonder so many workers are worried AI will take their jobs – the current trend suggests it’s a real possibility.
UBI?
Labour’s investment minister and millionaire Lord Stockwood has floated the idea of universal basic income (UBI) to ease the burden placed on workers of an economy shifting to AI. UBI is often promoted by some on the left hopeful it would provide a decent living standard under capitalism.
This Labour government already has an abysmal record of continued austerity and taking money off pensioners, students, benefits claimants and more to save money and keep ‘the markets’ placated. Even if under pressure Labour were to introduce UBI, it would be at an abysmal rate and could easily be cut whenever Labour needs to squeeze workers further. UBI is effectively an organisational solution to a political problem; a re-organisation of welfare like UBI won’t convince Labour to cough up more money.
Democratic control
We can only resolve the threat AI currently poses to workers by changing who actually controls AI technology and its implementation. Under capitalism, profit trumps everything else. A company brings in AI to replace workers or uses it to squeeze even more work out of existing staff, and the state leaves the unemployed with as little income as it can get away with.
But many can see the real possible benefit of AI. If software can reliably do tasks that workers are currently doing, then those workers could enjoy a shorter working week. But that won’t happen under capitalism.
In a socialist economy, the working class would have democratic control over where and how AI is introduced and used. AI, like all technological advances, could be used to make our work easier and shorten the working week with no loss of pay. But to make that possibility a reality, we have to fight for socialist change to stop AI becoming another part of capitalism’s chaos.
