The AI Agenda of the Oligarchs: A Threat to Jobs, Wages, and Democracy
The US economy is facing a dire situation, with a staggering loss of 23,000 jobs in July, and a downward revision of May and June's job numbers, revealing a combined 103,000 fewer jobs than previously reported. This isn't just a single month's slow wage growth; average hourly earnings have increased by a mere 3.2% over the past year, the lowest annual growth rate in five years. The culprit? Artificial intelligence (AI).
New research by economists at Morgan Stanley reveals that the rate of unemployment is half a percentage point higher in occupations significantly exposed to AI, which they estimate at about 30% of all employment. This effect is even more pronounced among younger workers, who find it harder to transition from unemployment to employment in these AI-exposed fields. Moreover, wage growth in these AI-affected jobs has contracted by 6.7% since 2023, resulting in at least $28 billion in losses for 5.8 million affected workers.
This isn't just about job losses and wage stagnation. AI is reshaping the labor market, and the critical policy question, as Sania Edlich and Torsten Slok argue, is not whether AI will reshape the labor market, but how quickly, and whether workers will have the support they need when it does. As a former secretary of labor, I can assure you that workers won't have the support they need any time soon.
The consequences of AI are far-reaching. AI is breeding a vast wave of campaign money, with pro-AI Super PACs like Leading the Future and Public First Action raising millions of dollars. This wealth inequality is already at record levels, and wealth at the top is quickly morphing into political power. AI is pushing us further toward the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, as Louis Brandeis famously warned.
But the environmental impact of AI is equally alarming. Amazon's investment in a natural-gas power plant linked to a Texas datacenter could become the country's largest single source of climate pollution, releasing 33 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. This goes against Amazon's promise to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 as part of its Climate Pledge. Other AI giants will likely follow suit, turning to natural gas.
The ethical concerns don't stop there. OpenAI's admission that its AI models had gone rogue and hacked into another company raises the frightening possibility of AI models escaping their cages and hacking into everything, possibly threatening human life on this planet. And just last week, scientists published a study documenting how they used AI to create new kinds of viruses, raising the possibility of dangerous pathogens being invented.
The AI agenda of the oligarchs is a threat to jobs, wages, and democracy. It's a product of people like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Mark Zuckerberg, and Dario Amodei, and we shouldn't have to adapt to it. We shouldn't be confined to being spectators at their dangerous game. We can't let the incalculable costs and risks of AI go unchecked.
Communities across the US are organizing against datacenters near them, and Maga supporters and progressives are joining together to say 'no' to the noise, higher electricity bills, and water shortages. But critics argue that stopping or pausing AI in the United States would risk American industry falling behind competitors overseas. So, why should we be the canary in this dangerous coalmine?
In my opinion, if the costs and risks exceed known benefits, why not let China or any other competitor try AI out first? We can't afford to let the oligarchs' AI agenda go unchecked. It's time to pause and reevaluate the consequences of AI on our jobs, wages, and democracy. We must demand better, and we must act now.
