Viewpoint: Artificial intelligence and labour

Abstract

The welfare of modern societies has been intrinsically linked to wage labour. With some exceptions, the modern human has to sell her labour-power to be able reproduce biologically and socially. Thus, a lingering fear of technological unemployment features predominately as a theme among Artificial Intelligence researchers. In this short paper we show that, if past trends are anything to go by, this fear is irrational. On the contrary, we argue that the main problem humanity will be facing is the normalisation of extremely long working hours.