SOCIAL AND ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF FULLY AUTONOMOUS AI

Abstract

This research raises broad questions regarding social and tech ethics in the Age of AI by asking what happens if AI systems acquire full autonomy as economic actors within a late capitalist economy, specifically as workers, capitalists, and consumers. Through a careful engagement with recent Marxian social theory and the speculative literature on “full automation,” the article builds a case that the analytical lens of labor displacement needs to be enlarged to encompass the displacement of capitalists and consumers as well as workers. We propose to rethink social and tech ethics from the standpoint of a renewed attention to the constitutions of these economic actors within the capitalist system. Such a rethinking can cast new light on what it means for AI systems to be designed and deployed more ethically within the contemporary global capitalist system. It further underlines the urgency of a cross-disciplinary dialogue between social theorists and the engineers, managers, and regulators who are shaping the trajectory of such systems and, accordingly, the prospects for ethical social and economic outcomes.