AI, mental and physical labor, and a just policy framework

Abstract This paper outlines an artificial intelligence (AI)-mediated future by examining the influence of AI on the labor market and, consequently, on society at large, and then advocates a just policy framework for policies meant to accommodate this influence of AI. First, the paper introduces a conceptual framework distinguishing between mental labor and physical labor, a distinction that proves useful when analyzing this influence of AI. Afterward, the influence of AI on the labor market is explained. It is argued that considering the so-called generality and the negligible marginal cost of AI, in conjunction with some other assumptions, AI is likely to cause mass technological unemployment of those who were formerly employed as mental laborers and will not switch to physical labor. This, so this paper concludes, is likely to bring about a structural transformation of society, when these individuals are said to form a new class of those who possess ineffective labor power (contra those who possess effective labor power, who form the other class). Finally, this paper puts forward a policy framework designed to deal with this new state of society. It is argued that to meet a minimal normative requirement for the adoption of AI, society should compensate the class of those who possess ineffective labor power so as to accommodate all the hardships common to them.