Valerio Capraro
Brutal paper: automation may lead to political repression. As automation shifts income from labor to capital, workers become poorer, revolt becomes more likely, and elites face a choice: redistribute, slow automation, or repress. But here is the issue: redistribution becomes more expensive precisely when automation makes labor less necessary. Repression, by contrast, becomes relatively more attractive. Therefore, elites may prefer repression to slowing down automation or redistributing its gains. This is the dark political economy of AI. So far, much of the debate has been about: “AI may take your job.” But economistar Daron Acemoglu, and colleagues Arda Gitmez, and Mehdi Shadmehr make a deeper point: AI may reduce the political need to care whether you have a job. The future may not be redistribution. It may be surveillance, control, repression. * Full paper in the first reply.
