A-I, Labor, and the Future of LA, War & the World
Sat., Feb. 7, 11 am – 5 pm, IAM Hall, 1261 N. Avalon Bl., Wilmington
The first thing to understand about “artificial intelligence”, A-I, is that it is military technology. The techno-fascist moguls promoting it are all military contractors with Trump’s War Department. The principal driver of research and development in autonomous vehicles has been the US Army Tank Division. Elon Musk’s Space-X is mainly involved in launching military spy satellites, not uber-rich space tourists. All branches of the US military are engaged in developing, deploying, and training robotic weapons — autonomous tanks, naval vessels, and airborne devices capable of identifying targets and executing kills without human oversight.
Second, A-I relies on sweated human labor in digital sweatshops in the Global South, and on the expropriation of previous human creative efforts. Its application to domestic economic purposes in production and consumption reflects the steady transfer of military technology to daily life, just like Tang, Teflon, and teargas.
In the ’50s, the interstate highways were planned and financed by a Defense authorization, justified for the transport of troops and materiél during the Cold War. Not coincidentally, they boosted the auto industry, enabled white flight to suburbia, and displaced and isolated Black communities in cities across the country.
Similarly, the Internet was a product of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (https://darpa.mil — as in “military”) to coordinate military research at universities around the country. Not coincidentally, it generated a geographic, racial, and class-based “digital divide” between urban and rural, white and Black, and rich and poor people and communities.
The rapid and unregulated development of adoption of A-I in every aspect of daily life poses a threat to human agency and intelligence, to privacy, to jobs, to freedom of expression, and to higher education, not to mention traffic safety. This is a reflection and manifestation of the drive towards cyber-warfare, control of space, and technological supremacy versus China, which US imperialism perceives as an existential threat. We are all in line to be the collateral domestic damage of that global war-fighting capacity.
There will be a critical gathering, with a panel of knowledgeable presenters and an opportunity for small group discussion and strategic planning on Saturday, February 7 from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM at the IAM Machinists Union hall, 1261 N. Avalon Boulevard, Wilmington CA. It is sponsored by ARA-LA/PART, Work Week, LaborNet, and the National Writers Union.
During the last SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild strikes, members said that A-I was an existential issue for their craft and their unions. This is even more true today. Millions of workers face elimination of their jobs, from Uber, Lyft, and truck drivers, to healthcare and education workers. Delivery drivers are forced to work with infrared cameras on their eyes 50-60 hours a week. Autonomous trucks that can operate in tandem for fuel economy are being designed to eliminate long-distance truckers. CA Governor Newsom has deregulated autonomous vehicles and has also allowed A-I companies to partner with UC, CSU and community colleges to introduce A-I and use it to eliminate faculty and staff and revise course content. A state-wide memo sent to all Cal State profs declared that all prior academic credential are no longer pertinent, and that the capacity to use A-I and to teach students to use them to become “work-ready” will be the new guiding principle for higher education. The US military is driving the use of A-I in aircraft, vehicles and ships and police departments are using A-I tools for surveillance and criminalization.
This meeting will bring together teachers, healthcare workers, writers, logistics and transportation workers to report on the impact A-I is having on them and fellow workers. Goldman Sachs has said that 350 million workers will lose their jobs. The tech billionaires who run the government want the total elimination of any regulation of A-I and its effect on working people. 500,000 tech jobs have already been purged since the introduction of “large language model” chatbots. Techno-fascists are using the state to spy on working people, and the general public, and profiting from war and genocide abroad. Lets educate ourselves and our siblings about what is happening now with A-I and what we can do to defend our jobs, lives and families. For more information, contact [email protected] or [email protected] or call 310-912-5528.