First Advisor

Nathan Gies

Term of Graduation

Spring 2024

Date of Publication

6-7-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.) in Political Science

Department

Political Science

Language

English

Subjects

Artificial Intelligence, Capitalism, Class, Political Science, Politics

Physical Description

1 online resource (iv, 118 pages)

Abstract

For many years, artificial intelligence has been confined to the realm of science fiction, and while the technology has been in development, predicting the effects AI will have on our society has been a challenging endeavor. The release of ChatGPT in 2022, the subsequent mass adoption of the AI chatbot, and the response by other private firms in the field announced AI's permanent entrance into the public sphere. These recent strides made in the field of artificial intelligence reveal that the pace of technological development has outstripped the rate at which we are able to politically examine and understand these technologies and their implications, leaving our political understandings of emerging technologies in a game of perpetual catch-up.

This thesis attempts to reverse this trend and look ahead to address a novel form of power made possible by artificial intelligence. This new mode of power will be exercised through the use of AI and data by the ruling class, opening a new front in the ongoing class struggle. I will use the HBO show Westworld to provide a lens for understanding the possibilities and perils of artificial intelligence, exploring the themes and questions raised by Westworld, such as trauma and the impact of how AI is designed. I will also engage existing scholarly discussion surrounding artificial intelligence and Jodi Dean's theory of communicative capitalism, with the aim of anticipating the ways in which artificial intelligence might be used by the capitalist class to exert a new form of power through data over the lower classes with the ultimate aim of socially engineering large swaths of the population. I will close by taking a look at the state of the working class today and detail how a popular political effort to advance working class interests could repel this latest assault by the capitalist class.

Rights

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Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/42361

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