The Impact of

AI
on Social Equity
CS158-2: Introduction to Artificial
Intelligence
4th Term AY 2019-2020
 Who’s going to benefit from
this technological revolution?

Are the disruptive effects

Outline inevitable?

Don’t we need a thriving middle

class to drive demand?
Social equity is concerned with justice
and fairness of social policy, including
civil rights, freedom of speech,
property rights, and equal access to
social goods and services
Who’s going to benefit from this
technological revolution?
• Unfortunately, AI is accelerating the substitution of capital for labor,
and so those with capital will benefit at the expense of those whose
primary asset is their ability to work.
• Income inequality is already a pressing societal issue, and it’s likely to
get worse.
• For all the benefits it will bring, the largely driven by progress in AI,
runs a significant risk of causing dislocation to our labor markets and
economy.
Are the disruptive effects
inevitable?
• Negative social effects are capable of being avoided
• There’s no law of nature that says increased automation has to result in
evil social consequences
• We have considerable control and flexibility as to how we direct and
distribute wealth while aligning incentives with society’s best interests,
as socialists like Karl Marx well understood.
Don’t we need a thriving middle
class to drive demand?
• The problem of increasing inequality is self-correcting, because the rich
“need” a middle class to buy all the goods and services produced.
• Henry Ford II, grandson of the company founder, was giving a tour of
one of the company’s new highly automated plants. Reportedly, Ford
jokingly asked, “Walter, how are you going to get those robots to pay
your union dues?” To which Walter replied, “Henry, how are you going
to get them to buy your cars?”
• No fundamental reason that majority of the population can’t be working
on projects for the sole benefit of the rich
Questions?