Book Review-WHY WE FEAR AI

Written by: Duncan B. on 29 September 2026

Among the many new books about AI that are coming out every week, I consider this book, written by two AI insiders, to be important because it stresses the need to look at AI from a class perspective. The authors urge us to look past the “doomsday” scenarios promoted by some people in the AI industry. 

The “doomsday” predictions about AI wiping out the human race divert attention from the real threats posed to workers by AI in the hands of the capitalist class. As the authors say, “It isn’t an AI superintelligence that is destroying us-it is the capitalist way of organising the world.”

Capitalism must keep growing or it will die. New technology allows the capitalist to lower the price of his products and increase the exploitation of the workers to boost profits. The introduction of steam engines made it possible for capitalists to bring large numbers of workers together in one place to produce goods on a large scale. 

The steam engine took away the control of the work process which workers had enjoyed with hand-operated machines such as spinning wheels and hand looms. Now the capitalists controlled the speed of work by controlling the speed of the steam engine.

AI is a new form of technology which also allows the capitalists to control the speed of work. The authors point to Amazon’s warehouses where workers are closely monitored by cameras connected to AI technology which monitors their speed and accuracy and any errors they make. Workers deemed by the system to be “too slow” can be fired.

The introduction of machinery allowed the capitalists to de-skill workers. An unskilled worker, often a child or woman, could now do work formerly done by a skilled worker, but for much lower wages. In the same way, AI allows many skilled jobs to be down-skilled, so they can be transferred to the gig economy or even eliminated.

 White collar jobs in areas such as banking and insurance are especially susceptible to being affected by AI. Generative AI which produces text, images or audio output is already wreaking havoc on the jobs and livelihoods of journalists, artists, writers, musicians, actors and other creative people.

The authors give examples of how AI is harming people in many ways. AI-based facial recognition systems used in policing are often wrongly accusing black people of crimes. AI systems are making decisions as to whether people can access benefits, often denying benefits to eligible people. AI is increasingly being used by employers to sort through job applications, often rejecting suitable applicants within seconds. We could list many more examples of the misuse of AI by capitalism.

The authors conclude by calling on workers to unite to oppose capitalism to build a world where technology serves the workers, instead of the workers serving technology and its owners.

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