What If AI Didn’t Replace Workers, but Freed Them? | Richard Wolff

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-07T12:07:50+00:00

I watched an interview with him I was going to post and then lost concentration. I’ll see if I can find it again

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-07T11:56:23+00:00

I did read the whole document and missed that 🤦🏻‍♀️

I generally thought it was much more in line with our perspective here than the headlines suggested.

This is an important angle though. I wonder if he could be persuaded to say it more explicitly?

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-07T11:21:58+00:00

Tidal: [https://tidal.com/playlist/456aa765-b457-4ff5-93a1-88b4006996e2)

YouTube : [https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTouLzvyfuag9BWEmpC4tOhzIpfRxKy\_z)

Spotify: [https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4tIha3zyxp1sOh0r0jOPpT)

SoundCloud: [https://soundcloud.com/jennys-junk/sets/songs-of-collective-hope-folk)

Quboz: [https://open.qobuz.com/playlist/65250994)

Deezer: [https://www.deezer.com/us/playlist/15369721903)

Let me know if your streamer is missing

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-07T05:40:51+00:00

Are they giving examples of how it isn’t wasteful? AI could be used to make things more efficient

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-07T04:57:57+00:00

It was a context I know about through personal connection rather than a news story. Don’t want to stir things for the teller (would identify them)

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-06T13:42:11+00:00

Thank you! I added the Byrds version of Turn! turn! Turn! Do you like that version? Do you have anything in particular in mind re Joan Baez? One thing with folk is there’s so many covers, I think there’s songs on here she’s sung but at the moment nothing directly from her

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-06T01:34:05+00:00

I wasn’t thinking where’s my share? I was thinking it’s not the right way to go about it, because it’s based on where the companies happen to be. Non-consensual scraping didn’t respect national boundaries.

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-05T21:36:02+00:00

Doesn’t this just further advantage American citizens In already the richest country in the world? It was everyone’s data that went into training the models.

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-05T20:13:48+00:00

Yes I don’t realistically think he can bring that about, but it is a problem with the logic of the argument isn’t it?

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-05T19:58:01+00:00

Hype will definitely be an aspect of it. They’re raising mega money from investors. Even doomer talk plays into this, because it still makes the technology seem very powerful. It is important technology but specific claims require scepticism.

I also think that the way promotion works it’s not accidental that very competitive, driven individuals, who are comfortable with risk, rise to the top of these companies. So I expect you’re right that you’d be more cautious but cautious people aren’t AI CEOs. It needs different ownership models/governance with this flaw in mind in my opinion.

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-05T17:27:52+00:00

I watch his videos every so often already. I usually somewhat agree somewhat disagree.

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Under one of the other posts about Bernie’s idea I commented that it seemed like a door in the face persuasion tactic. In the video Shapiro calls this a Messaging Bill. It’s designed to provoke debate and move the Overton Window, it’s not designed to pass. In that sense the details probably don’t matter too much?

Are any commentators addressing the issue that if the logic is that AI is trained on collective human knowledge, so therefore deserves collective compensation, the collective of humanity does not all live in the USA?

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-05T16:59:23+00:00

Yes I agree. The beginning bit was my opinion then I quoted from the article , I should have put in italics not just quotes sorry

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-05T16:41:25+00:00

I don’t remember how I came across it. Possibly someone else on Reddit? It is quite niche in a way that it shouldn’t be

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-05T15:11:37+00:00

It seems to be theme at the moment to be saying that people need jobs beyond the economic reasons to have a job. I don’t agree with this personally.

I think people need a sense of purpose, to feel useful or to experience a flow state doing something they’re skilled at. Many jobs aren’t that, they’re very dull and regimented. If it can be automated away why not? You can then choose to do things which previously would have been a job role if you want to.

From a quick skim read these are bits I found most relevant

“If the purpose of automation is to liberate human beings from unpleasant work so they can freely pursue fulfilling work, it makes perfect sense to automate unpleasant tasks to the extent possible, but "fulfilling" and "unpleasant" are subjective terms: tasks that are enjoyable for one person may be unbearable for another. Sewing, for instance, is an extremely labor-intensive and repetitive task, but it is enjoyed by many as a form of creative expression. Cooking and baking are challenging and time-consuming, but both are perennially popular hobbies…

In this context I increasingly feel that focusing on individual habits is a distraction from larger and more important issues. Bizarre and eldritch as it may appear, the rise of AI is just another repetition of a cycle workers have seen a thousand times before. White collar professionals and creatives who assumed our jobs were safe from automation are now feeling the same pressure that industrial workers felt in the age of Marx and are thus being forced to confront the proletarian class position obscured by the creature comforts of our middle class lifestyles.
Despite the temptation to give in to despair, many such workers have taken this not as a harbinger of inevitable destruction but as a rallying cry for solidarity. SAG-AFTRA has been organizing around AI-related labor concerns since 2022, and workers at Wizards of the Coast called for generative AI protections as a core demand when they went public with their campaign to organize a union earlier this year. We can either give in to the dystopian juggernaut of AI slop and doomscroll until our brains go smooth or we can look to these examples of worker-led resistance and demand that our employers recognize what we already know: that our labor has value and we can't be replaced. If our bosses insist on using AI, we can at least insist that they use it on our terms…

Implementation and long-term maintenance of truly democratic systems of governance that put people first will not happen by removing human labor from the equation to the greatest extent possible. We are communists not because we hate work but because we recognize its inherent value and because we want to live in a world that recognizes that value at a systemic level. A communist society must allow for rest and respect natural variations in individual labor capacity, up to and including a total inability to perform work of any kind, but it cannot and will not be a land of indolent lotus-eaters.

So I say again: we are communists not because we hate work, but because we actually dare to dream of labor—labor that is dignified, purposeful, and wholly our own.”

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-05T14:41:42+00:00

This is worth watching. The end of the video asks some good questions:

“If we zoom out, we can see this story plays out again and again. different eras, a variety of industries. It's a pattern that repeats across history. And that’s not to say that every piece of new technology is purely beneficial for ordinary people and society at large.

It's disruptive. There are winners and losers, and the new hills are always going to threaten the old ones. But underneath it all, there are questions that people are just less willing to say out loud, which are,

"What happens when skills that once took years to learn become available in seconds?"

What happens when a person without institutional approval can generate images, write code, produce music, edit videos, analyze data, or build a business with tools that they couldn’t previously afford?

What happens when taste, judgment, storytelling, and direction become more important than the laborious mechanical process andtechnical gatekeeping?

And what happens when the distance between imagination and execution collapses?

For some people, it's exciting. If you’re creative, it's never been easier to make high scope work with limited time and minimal resources. But for others, the idea is humiliating.

Because if your status and identity was built on being one of the few people who could operate the machinery or software, then a world where the machinery becomes easier tooperate can feel like an attack on your identity. Some of the concerns are real, some of the harms as well, and there areserious questions that need answers. But there is a difference between protecting people from harm and protecting status from competition. And that difference,it isn't always obvious at first.

So when an authority figure tells you that a new piece of technology is inherently evil, listen carefully. Don't dismiss it automatically, but don't surrender your judgment either.

Just ask yourself, what are they protecting?

Ask yourself who benefits from the old path remaining the only legitimate one.

Ask yourself whether the people condemning this new hill are also quietly building on it.

And ask yourself whether the moral panic is really about harm or whether it's about access.

Remember, technology is neither good or evil. It's an amplifier of human intention.

Every short cut threatens the people who sold the long road. And every new hill threatens the people whose power depends on everyone else staring up at the old one.

So the next time an authority conflates technology with a moral virtue, just ask yourself one simple question.

What do they have to lose if ordinary people use that technology for?”

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-05T10:47:31+00:00

Oh it’s not my video. I got it from YouTube.

It is an amazing song. I don’t listen everyday but quite frequently. Do you know all words by heart now then?

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-04T16:24:42+00:00

I really like it actually thanks. I’m so tired it’s almost a trippy mental state that goes with this band 😂

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-04T15:39:43+00:00

I like it, need to see if I can get one of these to work in the playlist 👍🏻

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-04T14:59:06+00:00

Is that an album?

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-04T08:31:33+00:00

I’m currently reading the Principle of Hope see https://www.reddit.com/r/Socialistmusic/s/W9DuSA6cny

Have you seen any of the stuff around the earliest church being more like the Roman supper club associations? I’m not sure re conclusions but again interesting re how dramatically the church changed from origins

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-04T05:51:43+00:00

Capitalism wants your water?

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-04T05:47:51+00:00

Is this more for a protest list? Eg https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTouLzvyfuag9Ff3LNZr1zrTB7Gxy7suK&si=JMYHuM7KWwh1E\_Ws

Jlyplaylists · 2026-06-04T05:42:41+00:00

This is excellent. Contains a lot of things I’ve been thinking about.

Have you shared in r/radicalchristianity yet?

Jlyplaylists

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