Abstract
The objective of this paper is to reflect on the shift in capitalism’s productive forces driven by the fourth technological revolution and its impacts on social relations. Our hypothesis is that artificial intelligence constitutes a new industrial complex: the megamachine that, through Big Tech’s data processing, reconfigures productive forces and social relations by transforming the forms of production, circulation, and consumption. The mass destruction of jobs is an unavoidable corollary, despite the parallel emergence of new professions linked to the new digital sector. To accomplish this task, we present some elements of the so-called structural crisis of capital; then, we present what we understand as the main characteristics of the current technological revolution; and finally, we problematize its impacts on social relations and labor force employment. The current context is the structural crisis of capital, which contains four elements: an ecological crisis, a crisis in social relations, an ideological crisis of justification for the system, and a shift in international power relations. The fourth technological revolution represents a radical transformation in the productive forces. The fundamental issue is its disruptive technologies: artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, metadata, big data, etc. Ultimately, the new digital society poses two contradictions: the rationalization of the living workforce and a crisis in commodity form. The social consequences of this transformation require reflection.
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
KEYWORDS
Disruptive Technologies, Global crisis, Artificial Inteligence
