RFH 145 Artificial Intelligence and Marx’s View of Automation (interview with Gavin Mueller

Radio Free Humanity: The Marxist-Humanist Podcast

Co-hosts Andrew Kliman and Gabriel Donnelly speak with guest Gavin Mueller, an assistant professor of New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam. Mueller researches the politics of digital culture and much of our discussion centers on the realities of artificial intelligence in our time. They consider the huge amount of money being spent on Large Language Models, how they work, and what they can actually do as opposed to what all the hype says that they can (or will be able to???) do. Additionally the discussants consider how workers can fight the encroachment of this new, automated technology into the workplace. Our discussion leans on parts of Gavin’s book Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Are Right About Why You Hate Your Job. They consider what Marx said about technology and automation, and how it applies to this situation. Plus current-events segment: the co-hosts discuss the political indictments handed down from the Trumpist Department of Justice that have targeted personal foes of Trump-James Comey, Leticia James, and John Bolton. Radio Free Humanity is co-hosted by Gabriel Donnelly and Andrew Kliman, and sponsored by Marxist-Humanist Initiative (https://www.marxisthumanistinitiative.org/ ).