Democracy is neither a sacred virtue nor the “end of history.” It is a system of governance that responds to the prevailing map of material power and influence. If the nature of that map changes, the political system changes with it.
So, is artificial intelligence in the process of reshaping the power structure that has dominated since the Industrial Revolution?
The Industrial Revolution was primarily concerned with a massive surge in material production. While machines reduced the need for human labor in many occupations, industrial expansion also created broad sectors of employment and consumption that absorbed displaced workers and accommodated the population explosion of the twentieth century. What might have become pressure on supply was transformed into consumer demand that stimulated even greater production.
The AI revolution, by contrast, is more a revolution in productive efficiency than in expanding production itself or broadening the base of those participating in it. Its strength lies in achieving desired outcomes with fewer workers, without a corresponding horizontal expansion capable of absorbing surplus labor. Development is focused primarily on empowering artificial intelligence itself, making it the central element to which we devote our attention.
Alongside manual skills, the Industrial Revolution required new forms of expertise such as accounting, market research, and legal services. This gave rise to a broad middle class, particularly benefiting new generations of educated young people. After the initial disruptions of social change, it created sectors that supported stability under the new order.
Artificial intelligence, however, has arrived to operate machines, monitor productivity, analyze markets, and propose strategies. It therefore threatens that very middle class, while robotics threatens low-cost labor, expanding the ranks of the marginalized.
In Britain, for example, the number of job openings advertised for recent graduates fell by 45.6 percent in a single year, according to data from the job search engine Adzuna. These figures are alarming on two levels. First, this is the demographic most likely to translate frustration into social unrest. Second, it is the group that shapes the future of consumption and forms the backbone of societal development. From this same group emerge the knowledge-based skills upon which modern societies rely. If this trend continues, capitalism itself may begin to erode from within, particularly when viewed in light of the following consideration.
The Industrial Revolution especially supported private ownership and individual independence within the capitalist economy. Productive capacity was distributed among vast numbers of individuals and businesses, each owning a factory or small enterprise and managing skills according to its needs. Some later merged into larger entities with shareholders. This decentralization encouraged a plurality of economic and political power centers.
The AI revolution, however, is moving in the opposite direction. On the surface, artificial intelligence appears to be a tool at your service, and in many respects it is. Yet what you possess is merely a valve; the source of the river is controlled by a limited number of entities that own the models and the data, and can alter them as they see fit. This represents a new form of economic relationship that might be described as “knowledge feudalism.”
It grants you a license to use its services while dictating the terms. It sells you a servant, a spy, and a watchdog all at once. Its function is to assist you, absorb your expertise, and monitor your behavior. In doing so, it becomes increasingly capable of performing the very tasks you once carried out yourself.
Artificial intelligence is an enormous and highly beneficial technological advancement. Politically, however, this shift in the distribution of power is likely to place pressure on the political systems that emerged under the previous order. It may lead either to highly centralized governments with broad powers, backed by popular mandates and controlling this vital artery, or to urgent legislative interventions designed to break AI monopolies through capitalist market mechanisms.
Both possibilities may fail, giving way instead to an entirely new political landscape, one with different definitions of work, money, ownership of the means of production, and the distribution of wealth.
Human history is a story filled with twists, turns, and surprises.
