The Impact of AI on the Future of Work: The Meaning of Work (Part II)

Published in

The Hive

9 min readSep 21, 2018

In Part I of this series of three blogs, the question of “Why Philosophy of AI?” was answered. We saw that philosophy is complimentary as well as foundational to AI and developed a pragmatic definition of AI. Knowing that we are ready to explore its impact on the future of work. Besides that, a pragmatic definition of AI has been developed.

It is clear that AI already affects work. It is applied in enterprises to assist (i), augment (ii) and finally automate (iii) work processes. But we don’t know the intensity of the change driven by this new technology. However, to get a better understanding of the topic, let’s take care of the remaining issues:

Which jobs are going to be substituted by AI and will there be new jobs?
How does a fundamental change in work impact our society?
How is it possible to grant a fair distribution of wealth in our society in which some own all the productive capacities and others own nothing?
How to be prepared for the change?

In this second blog of the series, we will continue to explore the future of work and lay the basis for answering our questions by taking a closer look at the prevailing conception of work, how this is intertwined with social structures and the way it is already influenced by AI.

The History of Work

Since the dawn of humanity, humans have been working. But the notion of work and its significance has changed drastically over time. Until the neolithic revolution, humans were hunter-gatherers and their work was essentially limited to these two activities. Survival was its only purpose. Since the beginning of the neolithic-age work has been changing. For the first time, humans were able to produce abundant food and other goods. This was the beginning of the division of labor. Nonetheless, work was still a mere necessity to survive.

An Aristotelian Notion of Work

In ancient Greece, this drastically changed. Division of labor was already very advanced and a clear distinction was made between physical or productive work and mental, contemplative work[1]. The former was despised in Greek society, whereas the latter was seen as superior. Aristotle even considered physical work to be a direct opposite of freedom and happiness. The bios praktikos (the practical/working life) is described as the most undesirable form of living in his doctrine. Work was understood as a burden, which prevents people from being involved in politics or science, not as an end in itself. The actual highest aim was to achieve eudaimonia (happiness) and this was only possible through a life in contemplation (bios theoretikos = the theoretical life). This is, according to Aristotle, the human’s destination and purpose: the activity of his mind.

It is important to note that this reluctance of physical work was only possible because of the social structure at this time. Slavery was an important constituent of economics and enabled privileged elites to avoid physical work and devote themselves to contemplation.

The Work in Flux: From a divine Vocation to Hegel and Marx

Only in the 5th century, the notion of work in western societies began to change with the rise of Christianity. Jesus and his disciples were part of the working class. So from being a mere duty and a burden, work became a divine vocation. During the Reformation, started by Luther’s proclamation of his Ninety-five Theses in the 16th century this notion had been consolidated and both physical and mental work began to get a positive connotation[2]. But although both forms were seen as something divine, physical work was still thought of as travail. This can still be recognized today by the differentiation between Labor (etymology: “exertion of the body; trouble, difficulty, hardship”[3] = physical work) and Work (etymology: “Scholarly labor”[4] = creative, mental work), which mainly originated from the philosophy of enlightenment.

Influenced by this school of thought, the notion of work as a mental activity also plays a central role in Hegelian Philosophy. G. W. F. Hegel saw the externalization and objectification of the humans’ consciousness as the result of its own work. Only through work, humans can emancipate themselves and manifest their consciousness perpetually within their (mental) work Hegel states that we are basically the mere result of our work [5]!

Later Karl Marx, who admired Hegel’s writing, revised this conception of work as purely mental and redefined it as a physical activity. With that, the understanding of man as an animal rationale (rational creature) changes towards the understanding of humans as an animal laborans (working creature). This upheaval breaks with the Aristotelian tradition, according to which the essence of the human being is reason. Consequently, the ancient idea that the bios praktikos (belonging to the idea of the animal laborans) is inferior to the bios theoretikos (belonging to the idea of the animal rationale) is also rejected. This conception of men as animal laborans is followed by the dogma: Man exists through work. In this way, Marx combined an economic conception of work essentially shaped by Adam Smith with a philosophical notion developed by Hegel [5]. This Hegelian/Marxist mindset is still significantly influencing the way we think about work today.

The key point in this historical analysis of work is the insight that our conception of work has always been in flux, but only since a very short time has work had a positive connotation. For the longest period in the history of man, work was just a necessary evil, which was to be avoided and sourced out to slaves. But through the change of this understanding of work, today it has several different important significations for both individual identity and for society — essentially where the purpose of work exceeds pure survival.

Work as an Essential Part of our Social Structure

The Importance of Work for the Individual

From a mere survival strategy to almost spiritual self-discovery, the activity “work” nowadays can represent a wide range of functions, for the individual as such. The most important aspects can roughly be divided into two categories: Self-preservation through Work and Self-identification through Work. The former refers to the livelihood of the individual and has not in principle changed since the stone age. The acquisition of income through work can cover basic needs such as eating, drinking, and housing. In this sense, work today is still a mere necessity. It is essentially a paid activity.

The latter includes an identity-creating component of work that still follows a Hegelian/Marxist tradition. Work allows us to emancipate and express ourselves. But beside this philosophical conception of the value of work for the individual, psychology and sociology approve its importance. By learning certain skills and accomplishing specific tasks, certain worldviews are adopted. Through work experiences, individual characteristics of the personality develop. Furthermore, through work, the individual assumes a specific social role and consequently gains social status, social recognition, and self-confidence[6].

Work plays a central role in social life and establishes necessary social structures. It is an important part of what makes life meaningful and enables satisfaction. Friedrich Engels, who co-developed Marx’s theories on society and economics, claimed once: “Work created humanity.” In some sense, we’re still following this dictum today[7].

The Importance of Work for the Society

Work also guarantees the adequate production of goods in an economy and thus the continued existence of a whole society. According to this view, work is a mere necessity to secure the livelihood of a larger community. On the other hand, work creates a group-identity and functions as a socializing mechanism on a community level. The readiness for social cooperation is promoted by the interplay of individuals in the context of their work[8]. This interaction during the process of work strengthens the cohesion within a specific group and on the large scale creates a society. And because we have almost exclusively focused on working as an institution of social cohesion, over time it has become a kind of ideology. The bios praktikos as a constitutional part of a good life became the currently prevailing paradigm. Work became an end in itself.

Let’s Assemble All the Bits and Pieces!

We now have discussed all of the important elements (AI, society, individual and the role of work) that are needed to sketch a model of the interdependencies between the Individual, Society, and Work. The impact of AI could challenge and fundamentally change those relations for the better or for the worse.

The model describes the relations between the elements included by the question: *How is AI affecting the future of work?* So far detected elements: Individual, Society, Work and AI. Financial benefits of work are represented by “$”. Social cohesion generated through work is represented by arrows.

How AI is Already Changing Work

This leads us back to the initial question of this series of blogs: How is AI affecting work and its future?

AI is already influencing the nature and future of work by reinventing business through assistance, augmentation, and automation. These three factors currently are changing work in the following ways:

In the beginning, AI is eliminating our busywork (i). This already occurs on a large scale. Inventions like the calculator are just the beginning of this trend that technological artifacts provide intelligence to humans. Meanwhile, we are beginning to see “intelligent” and interactive assistants driven by AI. The keyword here is as already mentioned: (i) Assistance [9]. AI facilitates many processes today and will also relieve workers in the future. But this is just the first step of the change of work caused through AI.

(ii) Augmentation is the next major change currently being driven by AI. It can elevate our abilities and capabilities to a level that allows people to accomplish tasks that previously seemed unsolvable. AI augments the human intelligence and extends informed decision making and creativity, beyond human levels. Long story short: It gives humans superpowers. Decisive here is the cooperation between man and machine[10], in order to guarantee the smoothest possible workflow.

The complete (iii) automation of the entire production process represents the completion of the use of AI in a company and is in our context certainly the most relevant aspect of AI. Routine activities are taken over by AI. This step in the process of implementing AI is crucial, as it is a pivotal point in the history of the work. Complete automation has various consequences, which have the potential to change work as an institution of social coexistence and a means for individual livelihood.

The illustration specifies the mode of the impact that AI has on work. Loss of jobs is represented by dashed arrows.

Bad News: Some Jobs will be Displaced

We can already see AI is making some jobs that exist today superfluous. Especially automation will play a central role in this. Routine jobs (those that are physically and cognitively repetitive) which are mostly non-creative such as taxi drivers, fast-food workers, and also more sophisticated ones like radiologists will be taken over by machines in the future. In fact, according to a study by the McKinsey Global Institute, up to 15 percent of the worldwide workforce will be replaced just by 2030, equivalent to about 400 million individuals [11]. However, almost every technical development makes certain professions superfluous. There are enough historical examples for this: switchboard operators, elevator operators, or milkmen. All those professions disappeared because of technical development. History shows us that in times of radical change people always fear the possibility of being on the losing side. Yet, technical progress has never before actually resulted in a struggle for work between man and machine. In fact, even more jobs were created. So how will it be this time?