IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/tefoso/v166y2021ics0040162521000081.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rethinking of Marxist perspectives on big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and capitalist economic development

Author

Listed:
  • Walton, Nigel
  • Nayak, Bhabani Shankar

Abstract

AI and big data are not ideologically neutral scientific knowledge that drives economic development and social change. AI is a tool of capitalism which transforms our societies within an environment of technological singularity that helps in the expansion of the capitalist model of economic development. Such a development process ensures the precarity of labour. This article highlights the limits of traditional Marxist conceptualisation of labour, value, property and production relations. It argues for the rethinking of Marxist perspectives on AI led economic development by focusing on conceptual new interpretation of bourgeois and proletariat in the information driven data-based society. This is a conceptual paper which critically outlines different debates and challenges around AI driven big data and its implications. It particularly focuses on the theoretical challenges faced by labour theory of value and its social and economic implications from a critical perspective. It also offers alternatives by analysing future trends and developments for the sustainable use of AI. It argues for developing policies on the use of AI and big data to protect labour, advance human development and enhance social welfare by reducing risks.

Suggested Citation

  • Walton, Nigel & Nayak, Bhabani Shankar, 2021. "Rethinking of Marxist perspectives on big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and capitalist economic development," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:166:y:2021:i:c:s0040162521000081
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120576
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162521000081
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120576?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert J. Gordon, 2016. "The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10544.
    2. Ajay Agrawal & Joshua Gans & Avi Goldfarb, 2019. "Economic Policy for Artificial Intelligence," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(1), pages 139-159.
    3. Ad. J. W. van de Gevel & Charles N. Noussair, 2013. "The Nexus between Artificial Intelligence and Economics," SpringerBriefs in Economics, Springer, edition 127, number 978-3-642-33648-5, October.
    4. Helga Nowotny, 2003. "Democratising expertise and socially robust knowledge," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 30(3), pages 151-156, June.
    5. Geoffrey Parker & Marshall Van Alstyne, 2018. "Innovation, Openness, and Platform Control," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(7), pages 3015-3032, July.
    6. Liu, Jun & Chang, Huihong & Forrest, Jeffrey Yi-Lin & Yang, Baohua, 2020. "Influence of artificial intelligence on technological innovation: Evidence from the panel data of china's manufacturing sectors," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    7. Anton Korinek & Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2018. "Artificial Intelligence and Its Implications for Income Distribution and Unemployment," NBER Chapters, in: The Economics of Artificial Intelligence: An Agenda, pages 349-390, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Judith Clifton & Amy Glasmeier & Mia Gray, 2020. "When machines think for us: the consequences for work and place," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 13(1), pages 3-23.
    9. Annabelle Gawer, 2009. "Platform Dynamics and Strategies: From Products to Services," Chapters, in: Annabelle Gawer (ed.), Platforms, Markets and Innovation, chapter 3, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Enders, Albrecht & Hungenberg, Harald & Denker, Hans-Peter & Mauch, Sebastian, 2008. "The long tail of social networking.: Revenue models of social networking sites," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 199-211, June.
    11. Iqbal, Rahat & Doctor, Faiyaz & More, Brian & Mahmud, Shahid & Yousuf, Usman, 2020. "Big data analytics: Computational intelligence techniques and application areas," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yogesh K. Dwivedi & A. Sharma & Nripendra P. Rana & M. Giannakis & P. Goel & Vincent Dutot, 2023. "Evolution of Artificial Intelligence Research in Technological Forecasting and Social Change: Research Topics, Trends, and Future Directions," Post-Print hal-04292607, HAL.
    2. Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro & Jorge Nascimento, 2021. "Shaping a View on the Influence of Technologies on Sustainable Tourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-18, November.
    3. Sudhanshu Joshi & Manu Sharma & Rashmi Prava Das & Joanna Rosak-Szyrocka & Justyna Żywiołek & Kamalakanta Muduli & Mukesh Prasad, 2022. "Modeling Conceptual Framework for Implementing Barriers of AI in Public Healthcare for Improving Operational Excellence: Experiences from Developing Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-23, September.
    4. Yulin Liu & Xincheng Zhu & Yuhao Wang, 2023. "Revisiting and evaluation of the index of sustainable economic welfare based on artificial intelligence: data from 30 Chinese provinces from 2003 to 2019," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 3123-3152, April.
    5. Luo, Shiyue & Yu, Mengyao & Dong, Yilan & Hao, Yu & Li, Changping & Wu, Haitao, 2024. "Toward urban high-quality development: Evidence from more intelligent Chinese cities," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tang, Hua & Chen, Jing & Ai, Xingzheng & Li, Xiaojing & He, Haojia, 2023. "First-party content decision under competitive hardware/software platforms: Free vs. charge," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 311(3), pages 1068-1083.
    2. Naude, Wim, 2019. "The race against the robots and the fallacy of the giant cheesecake: Immediate and imagined impacts of artificial intelligence," MERIT Working Papers 2019-005, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    3. Gries, Thomas & Naudé, Wim, 2020. "Artificial Intelligence, Income Distribution and Economic Growth," IZA Discussion Papers 13606, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Zhu, Jun & Zhang, Jingting & Feng, Yiqing, 2022. "Hard budget constraints and artificial intelligence technology," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    5. Su, Chi-Wei & Yuan, Xi & Umar, Muhammad & Lobonţ, Oana-Ramona, 2022. "Does technological innovation bring destruction or creation to the labor market?," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    6. Denicolai, Stefano & Zucchella, Antonella & Magnani, Giovanna, 2021. "Internationalization, digitalization, and sustainability: Are SMEs ready? A survey on synergies and substituting effects among growth paths," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    7. Naudé, Wim & Dimitri, Nicola, 2021. "Public Procurement and Innovation for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence," IZA Discussion Papers 14021, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Naudé, Wim, 2020. "From the Entrepreneurial to the Ossified Economy: Evidence, Explanations and a New Perspective," GLO Discussion Paper Series 539, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    9. Yingying Lu & Yixiao Zhou, 2021. "A review on the economics of artificial intelligence," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(4), pages 1045-1072, September.
    10. Mosterd, Lars & Sobota, Vladimir C.M. & van de Kaa, Geerten & Ding, Aaron Yi & de Reuver, Mark, 2021. "Context dependent trade-offs around platform-to-platform openness: The case of the Internet of Things," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    11. Geiger, Niels & Prettner, Klaus & Schwarzer, Johannes A., 2018. "Automatisierung, Wachstum und Ungleichheit," Hohenheim Discussion Papers in Business, Economics and Social Sciences 13-2018, University of Hohenheim, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences.
    12. Wim Naudé, 2022. "From the entrepreneurial to the ossified economy," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 46(1), pages 105-131.
    13. Naudé, Wim & Dimitri, Nicola, 2018. "The Race for an Artificial General Intelligence: Implications for Public Policy," IZA Discussion Papers 11737, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Yogesh K. Dwivedi & A. Sharma & Nripendra P. Rana & M. Giannakis & P. Goel & Vincent Dutot, 2023. "Evolution of Artificial Intelligence Research in Technological Forecasting and Social Change: Research Topics, Trends, and Future Directions," Post-Print hal-04292607, HAL.
    15. Gries, Thomas & Naude, Wim, 2018. "Artificial intelligence, jobs, inequality and productivity: Does aggregate demand matter?," MERIT Working Papers 2018-047, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    16. Tan Yigitcanlar & Federico Cugurullo, 2020. "The Sustainability of Artificial Intelligence: An Urbanistic Viewpoint from the Lens of Smart and Sustainable Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-24, October.
    17. Wang, Hua & Liao, Lingtao & Wu, Ji (George), 2023. "Robot adoption and firm's capacity utilization: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    18. Zhai, Shaoxuan & Liu, Zhenpeng, 2023. "Artificial intelligence technology innovation and firm productivity: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PB).
    19. Jean-Philippe Deranty & Thomas Corbin, 2022. "Artificial Intelligence and work: a critical review of recent research from the social sciences," Papers 2204.00419, arXiv.org.
    20. Zhang, Yun & Qu, Yuxuan, 2024. "Has the digital economy improved the consumption of poor and subsistence households?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:166:y:2021:i:c:s0040162521000081. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00401625 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.