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The first spark was lit by textile worker Ned Ludd. During the Industrial Revolution, textile workers who faced the risk of losing their jobs resisted by breaking the machines. But this machine-breaking could neither prevent them from becoming unemployed nor stop mechanization.
Blue-collar workers took mass action against low wages, harsh working conditions and job insecurity. They organized in unions and went on a general strike for the right to an 8-hour workday. Albert Parsons and August Spies were executed. They became the global symbols of May 1st. Yet they could not prevent poor working conditions, unemployment or low wages.
Tough Days Await White-Collar Workers
Today, white-collar workers are struggling against eroding wages, mobbing, burnout, and unregulated and endless working conditions. But they are not organized. Because they are divided into two groups: white-collar workers fighting against AI and white-collar workers using AI. The wage gap between these two groups is also enormous. The millions working in offices do not earn the same wages as CEOs, software experts, finance experts and healthcare executives.
Worldwide, the number of people laid off on the pretext of AI has exceeded 184,000. Some of the most affected sectors are as follows:
- Technology & Software: 57,100+ people (Coding and testing)
- IT & Consulting: 31,900+ people (Technical support)
- Finance & Banking: 25,000+ people (Analysis and scoring)
- Customer Relations: 16,600+ people (Transition to AI bots)
According to Goldman Sachs and WEF reports, around 9 million white-collar roles are expected to be directly eliminated or transformed by AI by 2030.
It seems that white-collar workers who fight against AI will lose. Those who use AI will win.
AI, which replaces the workforce in every area of life, will reduce costs and increase production. We all need to seek an answer to this question: Will capital continue to accumulate in certain hands, or will the masses get their share of the benefits that AI offers to humanity?
For example, will working hours decrease without cutting wages? Will essential needs become cheaper or free? Because AI does everything for free!
We must use AI not as a "destructive force" that condemns people to unemployment and hunger, but as an advanced technology that meets social needs. Otherwise, AI will turn into a punishment that makes human life hell instead of making it easier.
History must not repeat itself!
Society must not be divided once again into a minority that fully benefits from all the possibilities of AI and a majority that is deprived of and victimized by this technology.
My personal opinion is this: White-collar workers who use AI can become the greatest driving force for implementing the decisions that will ensure the distributive justice humanity needs.
Although their souls are far from Ned Ludd, Albert Parsons and August Spies, the power to rewrite tomorrow is in their hands. They can use this power in favor of humanity and use AI as a problem-solving tool.
Otherwise, they themselves will be defeated by AI in the face of the greed of capital. All authority will pass to AI. We will all lose.
It is against the nature of things for capital to see this danger and stand against it. Capital, blinded by greed for profit, cannot be a hope for the future of humanity. Exceptions do not change the result. History is witness to this. The moment we leave everything to AI, neither humanity nor capital will remain. Humanity will be the winner together with AI.
Sources:
-Goldman Sachs Global Research (2023) - The Potentially Large Effects of Artificial Intelligence on Economic Growth-World Economic Forum - Future of Jobs Report
-Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. - Job Cut Reports