Automation, AI and the New Means of Production
You are told that technology will set you free.
Machines will work so you don’t have to. Artificial intelligence will increase efficiency, reduce effort, and create a better future.
But I would ask for whom?
Look at the history of the factory. When Ford Motor Company introduced the assembly line, it transformed production. Efficiency soared, output multiplied. Fewer skilled workers were needed, tasks were simplified, and control shifted firmly toward those who owned the factory.
Now look at the factory today.
Industrial robots assemble cars with precision and speed. Companies like Tesla and Toyota rely heavily on automation. The process continues, more machines, fewer workers, higher output.
Productivity rises.
But where does the benefit go?
Not to the worker whose role disappears, or whose bargaining power declines. It flows upward, to those who own the machines, the systems, the technology.
Because understand this clearly: owning technology today is owning the means of production.
And so, as traditional jobs shrink, a new form of labor emerges.
The gig economy.
Workers displaced from stable employment are told they are now “independent.” They drive, deliver, code, design, all on demand. No contracts. No security. No guarantees. The risk is transferred downward, while control remains above, often exercised through algorithms rather than managers.
This is not liberation.
It is adaptation.
The factory did not disappear. It expanded beyond its walls. It now exists in your car, your phone, your home. Work is no longer a place you go, but a condition you live within.
And here lies the contradiction.
Machines have the potential to reduce labor, to free human beings from repetitive work. But under capitalism, they do not free the worker.
They replace them.
Or worse, they redefine them into something more precarious, more controlled, more disposable.
So I will say this outrightly.
Technology does not determine the future.
Ownership does.
And as long as the machines are owned by the few, the many will continue to bear the cost of their progress.











