On the basis of this study, Steinhoff develops a Marxist analysis to argue that the popular theory of immaterial labour, which holds that information technologies increase the autonomy of workers from capital, tending towards a post-capitalist economy, does not adequately describe the situation of high-tech digital labour today.
James Steinhoff is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto, Canada.
1. Introduction: Automation, Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence.- 2. Labour, Capital, Machine: Marxist Theory and Technology.- 3. Post-Operaismo and the New Autonomy of Immaterial Labour.- 4. Industrializing Intelligence: A Political Economic History of the AI Industry.- 5. Machine Learning and Fixed Capital: The Contemporary AI Industry.- 6. A Dark Art: The Machine Learning Labour Process.- 7. New Autonomy and Work in the AI Industry.- 8. Conclusion: Harry Braverman Overdrive.
“The author is very clear and concise in showing the reader what his objectives are and are not, and in guiding the reader through the arguments and evidence. He is explicit in reviewing what he has completed and what the next steps will be. The reader should be aware that this book is basically a philosophical treatise. … It is worth the effort to read this book.” (Anthony J. Duben, Computing Reviews, August 1, 2022)