Let's ask ChatGPT: "What would Marx say about AI in service to Capitalism?"

AI and the new Alienation.

Imagine how different the answer would be if human happiness/flourishing were the purpose of life, instead of profit.

Anyway, I had to ask.

Here’s what ChatGPT compiled on the question. Not bad. Alas.

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Marx would likely view AI in service to capitalism as a continuation—and intensification—of the processes of exploitation and alienation that he identified in the 19th century. Here’s how his core ideas might apply:

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1. AI as a Tool of Capital Accumulation

Marx saw technological advancement as something that, under capitalism, serves the interests of capital by:

• Increasing productivity: AI automates mental and manual labor, reducing the need for human workers.

• Lowering labor costs: Capitalists use AI to replace workers or intensify their labor without equivalent compensation.

• Expanding surplus value: The profits from AI-enabled productivity are typically captured by capital owners, not workers.

Marx: “The instrument of labor, when it takes the form of a machine, immediately becomes a competitor of the worker himself.”
— Capital, Vol. I

If Marx were alive today, he would likely argue that AI serves as a “machine-intelligence extension of capital”, deepening the concentration of wealth and power.

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2. Alienation Intensified

Marx identified four forms of alienation under capitalism:

• Alienation From the product: Workers are further removed from the end product as AI systems handle design, production, and decision-making.

• Alienation From the process: AI dictates the pace, rhythm, and logic of labor, diminishing workers' autonomy and creativity.

• Alienation From others: Gig economy and AI-mediated work isolate workers and atomize labor forces.

• Alienation From self (species-being): Humans are reduced to cogs or data-points in algorithmic systems, distancing them from fulfilling, meaningful work.

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3. Technological Fetishism

Marx critiqued commodity fetishism—the tendency to treat social relations as relations between things. Today, this could manifest as AI fetishism:

• Treating AI as autonomous and neutral rather than as a product of human labor shaped by capitalist interests.

• Concealing the labor behind AI (data labeling, maintenance, etc.), often outsourced to low-paid or invisible workers.

In Marxist terms, this “fetishism” obscures the social and class relations embedded in the technology.

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4. The Reserve Army of Labor and Precarity

AI displaces workers and contributes to a “reserve army of labor”—a surplus of unemployed or underemployed workers who can be used to suppress wages and working conditions.

This dynamic is visible in:

• The gig economy (platform workers managed by AI systems).

• Rising precarity as automation threatens job security even in white-collar professions.

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5. Possibility of Emancipation?

Marx did not oppose technology itself; he believed that under communism, technological advancement could:

• Liberate humans from toil.

• Allow for the free development of individual capacities.

• Support a society based on need rather than profit.

So he might ask:

“Why should the productivity gains of AI enrich a few, when they could reduce work hours and improve life for all?”

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In Summary:

Marx would likely critique AI as it currently functions under capitalism as:

• A tool of capital to deepen exploitation.

• A driver of alienation in more sophisticated forms.

• A new mask for old class relations.

• A missed opportunity for liberation, should society be restructured to harness AI for collective benefit.

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And, whew, here we are.

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