Inhuman Power: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Capitalism (Digital Barricades: Interventions in Digital Culture and Politics) - Hardcover

Dyer-Witheford, Nick; Kjosen, Atle Mikkola; Steinhoff, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0745338615 ISBN 13: 9780745338613

Publisher: Pluto Press, 2019

Synopsis

The past several years have brought staggering advances in the field of Artificial Intelligence. And Marxist analysis has to keep up: while machines were always central to Marxist analysis, modern AI is a new kind of machine that Marx could not have anticipated.
            Inhuman Power explores the relationship between Marxist theory and AI through three approaches, each using the lens of a different Marxist theoretical concept. While the idea of widespread AI tends to be celebrated as much as questioned, a deeper analysis of its reach and potential produces a more complex and disturbing picture than has been identified. Inhuman Power argues that on its current trajectory, AI is likely to render humanity obsolete and that the only way to prevent it is a communist revolution.
 

About this title

About the Author

Nick Dyer-Witheford is associate professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at University of Western Ontario. Atle Mikkola Kjosen is assistant professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at University of Western Ontario. James Steinhoff is a researcher in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario.
 

Review

""'Indispensable reading for all those who want to understand the relationship between artificial intelligence and capitalism'"" - Christian Fuchs, author of 'Digital Demagogue: Authoritarian Capitalism in the Age of Trump and Twitter' ""'A radical and provocative reading. The authors' criticisms of left accelerationism are timely and persuasive, their conclusion is bracing but necessary.'"" - Sarah Kember, author of 'iMedia: The Gendering of Objects, Environments and Smart Materials' ""'A fascinating and pioneering work that deploys Marx to understand contemporary AI capitalism. An exemplary contribution to understanding how machine learning is changing our world and transforming communist strategy'"" - Nick Srnicek, author of 'Platform Capitalism'

Edition details

• Publisher: Pluto Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0745338615
• ISBN 13: 9780745338613
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 176