Is the Principle of Equality and the Social Contract in danger with the irruption of AI?
Stunned, I watch, from the comfort of the shelter of my office, as France burns in an episode of serious riots caused by hordes of third-generation young Gauls descended from immigrants. Regardless of the accidental spark (in Aristotelian terms) that has caused the social revolt that is even leading to the burning of public libraries (which terrifies me because it is the typical seed action of all fundamentalism), the truth is that in my opinion, the cause of a France on fire must be found in the breach of the Principle of Equality and in the consequent fracture of the Social Contract of a State that, for various sociological reasons (through racism), has been unable to socially integrate one part each time most important of its natural population. Which, for not having, does not have even the second basic level of the famous Maslow pyramid of human needs insured regarding personal security, both physical, as well as resources, and work. A scenario as bleak as it is dystopian, typical of a dangerous pre-environment of civil war, which by association of ideas and professional deformation in Roboethics leads me to imagine a similar, statistically probable future, extrapolated in terms of coexistence between men and Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers. Let me explain.
In the democratic world, and more particularly in old Europe, the social idea of Equality is a fundamental general principle of Law included in all the European Constitutions that not only contemplates equal rights and obligations before the Law, but also the right of every citizen to equal opportunities (versus the material equality typical of communist regimes), a concept that in turn symbiotically feeds other higher democratic values such as Freedom and Justice. That is to say, that today we cannot understand Equality without its social perception as Equal Opportunities, which is an idea of Social Justice typical of contemporary democratic States that advocates that all citizens should have the same possibilities of access what we call the Social Welfare State (symbolized by the five levels of Maslow’s Pyramid), a notion of a welfare society that represents the backbone of the democratic political organization system. Or, explained in a synthesized way: there is no Democracy without Equal Opportunities.
Likewise, this Principle of Equality, together with the rest of the democratic guiding principles that constitute the foundations of the set of rights and obligations of citizens, represents a de facto agreement or implicit contract that citizens grant us with the State, along with the State is granted to us citizens. A tacit agreement between the parties that we call the Social Contract (influenced by the polymath Rousseau), and from which the social order and the legitimization of the authority of the State in its division of powers are derived. Ergo, if the Principle of Equality is broken in a democratic society -as has happened in France-, the Social Contract is fractured and by extension the social order collapses, similar to what happens to a house of cards after a falling of the cards of its pyramidal base.
Exposed which in an introductory and didactic way, the question that is the object of this reflection is: Is the Principle of Equality and the Social Contract in danger with the irruption of AI? In order to answer the question posed, we must focus on the disruptive changes derived from AI that are expected in the Labor Market, as a key factor for the optimal development of people’s daily lives and as an existential sense of all citizens as Being Social (which is one who successfully integrates into a social system for the benefit of their personal fulfillment).
Although I have already referred to this subject in previous reflections (“The 3 great changes that AI brings to the Labor Market” (1), and “The Age of Robots will transform the human working class into an idle social class” (2)), and being aware that AI has already begun to devastate the middle layers of the Labor Market with the automation of production processes in certain economic sectors and the consequent lowering of labor costs (which has a direct relationship with the reduction in wages of workers), I would like to focus on this occasion -under a new perspective within the logic of this article- on the inevitable process of concentration of the labor force in the hands of AI in a transversal way to the set of productive activities.
It is evidence that the irruption of AI opens a new stage that is redefining the economic and social market system known as Capitalism, in which an oligopoly of technology companies (directed by a select group of humans in collusion with the AI itself) will maximize their economic benefits, at the cost of a progressive and unstoppable desertification of employment for human workers, and with the imposition of a new model of global colonialism for the citizen as a technological consumer (with the consequent danger of being subject to a political of mass control), and indifferently to the current legislation that tries to put doors to the field of AI (3,4). A future scenario that will undoubtedly accelerate at the gates of the imminent entry into the Fifth Era of the Industrial Revolution where all production processes (including supply and distribution chains) will be interconnected in a network, managed by robots, and directed by AI.
At this point of social confluence in which we find ourselves headed, the human being will be forced to reaffirm himself as a Social Being outside the Labor Market, an area which has historically represented to date the motor nucleus of the socialization of a large part of humanity (who lives thanks to work income) as a citizen. So much so that the Principle of Equal Opportunities and vital access and development through the Labor Market are closely linked. Or in other words, there is currently no Equal Opportunity (no matter how paternalistic or benefactoring the State is) without the integration of the citizen in the Labor Market (And if not, ask France). This represents a problem that requires an urgent solution before a near event horizon in which, without a reasonable doubt, the AI will monopolize the Market and concentrate the workforce.
The problem that lies ahead, as we can deduce, is not trivial. A social stumbling block that must resolve the political role of the State, as guarantor of the rights of citizens, offering a solution that is as feasible as it is socially satisfactory in a new and updated version of the democratic society model and the very concept of man as a Being Social stricto sensu. Well, not only the social order, but the very significance of the State is at stake.
However, knowing the limited effective capacity of the contemporary political class to solve social needs (and even more so being out of alignment with the dizzying pace of AI development), no one escapes the fact that the period of transition between the citizen as a Social Being who self-fulfils through work to a self-fulfilled Social Being exempt from the work environment, can be a long and painful transit for millions of families who can be dragged sine die to social exclusion. A tough journey through the labor desert that, if the bad omens come true, will end up breaking the Principle of Equality and, by extension, fracturing the Social Contract, as a direct effect of a feeling of collective helplessness among the active population. massive citizen discontent that could translate, in the not too distant future, into serious social disturbances.
Today, sadly, France is burning for a social integration problem that has nothing to do with AI. Tomorrow, through AI, the whole of the known democratic West can burn. The flags of the Social Revolutions are always new, but their causes are as old as humanity itself. In fact, the first Social Contract is attributed to the Greek sophist Protagoras of Abdera, who formulated said political theory in the s. V BC in order to protect the weakest from abuses by the strongest. In the end, the desire for Freedom, Equality and Justice is inherent to the human being, although there are always other human beings, with or without AI, who try to subdue and control the rest of humanity for their own benefit. Yes, we are beginning a new stage that will redefine Capitalism, and since this is the idiosyncratic economic model of contemporary democratic societies, we are also in a new stage of redefinition of known societies. How we are going to make the transition between the old pre-AI society and the new AI society is among our most pressing state duties. The struggle between the power of the State and the power of the Market, and even more between the reason for the existence of both, already has a fixed date.
References
(1) The 3 big changes that AI brings to the Labor Market. Jesús A. Mármol. Medium, May 25, 2023 https://acortar.link/RsuFOv
(2) The Age of Robots will transform the human working class into an idle social class. Jesús A. Mármol. A Seeker’s Log, May 15, 2022 https://acortar.link/AvM8Nd
(3) Can Europe force its new AI law on the rest of the world?. Jesús A. Mármol. Medium, May 17, 2023 https://acortar.link/QOr4Qj
(4) EU AI Law may return Europe to the Middle Ages. Jesús A. Mármol. Medium, June 29, 2023 https://acortar.link/rD9dy5
