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Is ‘artificial intelligence’ a threat or a promise?
The impact of AI depends on who controls it and for what purpose, argues the Marx Memorial Library

POPULAR debate over the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) tends to be couched in terms of utopias or dystopias.

Will AI lead to some benign post-capitalist paradise — “fully automated luxury communism” perhaps, or to a hellish “technofeudalism”? The answer of course is probably neither (though, yes, capitalism could get even worse!). 

Policy debate tends by contrast to focus on responses — education, reskilling, the need to remain competitive by removing barriers to the adoption of AI, and more vague exhortations that “we” need to make sure that the potential benefits are realised. (Sometimes a virtuous “and shared” is added). 

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