Democratize AI or Make the AI Oligarchy an Inevitability#

The Current Moment: AI as a Catalyst for Change#

AI has the potential to transform society profoundly, but who controls it is decisive. Today, control lies largely with powerful corporations and capitalists—not workers or the public. The future depends on whether AI is democratized or monopolized.

If AI displaces workers without adequate social supports, we risk deepening inequality and social collapse. Democratizing AI means sharing both its power and its gains broadly, requiring:

• New ownership models, such as worker cooperatives or state enterprises, giving communities control over AI use.
• A transformed welfare state that provides security and dignity beyond traditional wage labor, possibly including robust universal basic income or alternative social supports.

Enhancement vs. Augmentation: A Crucial Distinction#

Philosopher Evgeny Morozov highlights a key difference from early cybernetician Warren Brodey:

• Augmentation: Using AI to automate and deskill labor, making workers easier to control but potentially less empowered.
• Enhancement: Using AI to build new human capacities, fostering creativity, skills, and richer engagement with the world.

Capitalist interests currently favor augmentation—reducing labor costs and increasing control—while enhancement remains largely an elite privilege. Democratized AI could instead prioritize enhancement for the many.

The Welfare State Challenge#

The AI revolution could disrupt entire industries and jobs. The critical questions for society are:

• How to distribute the productivity gains from AI fairly?
• What new socially valuable roles and activities can replace traditional wage labor?
• How to ensure people find purpose, fulfillment, and agency in a post-work society?

Current tech oligarchs often promote a minimal universal basic income (UBI), stripping social welfare to a bare minimum and pushing privatized social services. This approach risks worsening social inequalities rather than alleviating them.

The Choice Ahead#

We cannot surrender the future of AI to the capitalist class by default. This is a pivotal moment in industrial history to:

• Democratize AI control and deployment.
• Remake the welfare state to meet the new social realities created by AI.
• Ensure AI serves common interests, dignity, and democratic participation.

The future is unwritten. We have the opportunity—and the obligation—to make AI work for all of us, not just a powerful few.