Automation and Artificial Intelligence in Labour Practices

Abstract

The labour paradigm is undergoing cardinal changes in the current conditions. Among the main factors of the ongoing changes, the authors of the article single out large-­scale automation of labour and the introduction of artificial intelligence, leading to the replacement of classical labour with intangible labour. The review compares different approaches to the evolution of attitudes towards work in the digital age. The rejection of traditional labour values and labour culture, declared by modern social theorists, is opposed to the possibilities of non-material labour, self-creation, 'out-of-the-box thinking' in their search for new foundations and meanings of human existence. The theoretical basis of the article is a layer of works, which is usually attributed to the interdisciplinary direction of the humanities and social sciences – 'philosophy of labour.' The authors rely both on the fundamental works of the classics of the concept of a working society and on modern social theorists, futurologists, researchers of culture and the political process. Answering the question of what a person will do under a large-­scale replacement of human labour with the labour of machines, the authors conclude that the ambivalent nature of the processes in the world of work will be created. This issue acquires particular urgency and demand for solutions in the field of social policy under the crisis of capitalism and the global epidemic situation, which are entering a state of convergence at the turn of the 2020s.