Before artificial intelligence (AI) was invented as a technology, capitalism at large was driven by what could be called a fantasy of AI. This means that the most important economic processes—from decision making to production—have gradually been delegated to some higher, magically autonomous intelligence imagined as, for instance, the “self-regulated market.” And this has paved the way for the rise of actual AI technologies. Hence, unsurprisingly, AI as a self-optimizing and self-generating intelligence is nowadays becoming the driving factor in processes of “market-friendly” privatization transforming an increasing number of social fields: medicine, education, warfare, etc. This far-reaching commingling of AI as fantasy and AI as technology is confronting us with an urgent question: what happens to human labor under these conditions? The SILENT WORKS panel – the launch of Berliner Gazette's 2020 annual project – seeks answers to this question.     

Presented in cooperation with the Berliner Gazette.