Artificial Intelligence (AI) and The Moral Economy: Social Choice, Exclusion and Sustainable Development in the Reckless AI Age

Today we inherit the reckless AI age. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming economic and social relationships in an unprecedented way. This article examines the emerging moral economy of AI with particular emphasis on its impact on vulnerable sections and economically disadvantaged communities in society including the informal sector workers and youth. Whether AI-driven economic decisions can reflect collective welfare rather than mere private profit and output is the dominant theme of this paper. Can economic system be considered efficient when AI system causes exclusion and inequality undermining social justice? This paper tries to connect the argument to Amartya Sen’s capability approach and Kenneth Arrow’s social choice theory and some empirical evidence on AI’s effects on labor and sustainable development. After reviewing neo classical paradigm and the economists who have questioned the economic efficiency alone approach the paper examines whether AI driven benefits are filtering down to the laboring poor in the dualistic labor markets in countries like India where the informal sector is expanding and is a survival mechanism for the laboring poor. This paper concludes by citing few hypotheses and making a strong case for a morally responsible AI regime for sustainable human development. Time has come to review the moral economy of the laboring class in the ICE age. The article tries to connect AI driven corporate restructuring and the recent Microsoft layoffs/ voluntary exit offer and attempts to examine the changing relationship between technological innovation and human labor.