AI, Robotics, and Ecosocialism - New Green Horizons

Introduction

Over the next several years, it seems clear that the continued development and integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, together referred to in this essay as robo-AI, will lay the foundation for a profound change in human productivity and economic relations. What is not clear is how these technological changes will affect social relations, including changes in human labor and the labor market within capitalism. These changes are almost certain to grow as the application of AI and robotics expands and as AI and robotics move closer together.

In this article, I first look at some robo-AI-driven changes in the labor market. Then I consider how these changes might be addressed by the left, including the Green Party.

While the scale and pace of AI effects on work and the labor market are, as yet, unclear^{^[1]}, it seems quite likely that as robo-AI continues to grow and expand its utility, there will be major disruptions of work as we have known it.

Early AI R&D Funding in the US

Following a pattern similar to that for the US pharmaceutical industry, AI got its start with US government (that is,, public) funding, principally through the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). I could find no specific breakdown for AI-related research as a subset of all computer science funding.

During the 1960s through early 2000s, as much as 80 percent or more of computer science research was funded by the National Science Foundation.^{^[2]} In other words, the foundational work making robo-AI feasible was funded largely by the government as a public good. Once it reached the threshold of its current capabilities, the results of this research were acquired by private corporations like Meta, Google, and Open AI at no cost.

Waymo and Amazon – two example robo-AI applications

Two AI companies, Waymo and Amazon, illustrate the potential effects of robo-AI on work and the labor market.

Waymo

Waymo, the autonomous vehicle company^{^[3]}, has already begun and has almost reached the threshold of commercial viability. It is owned by Alphabet, the parent company of Google.

Waymo, which started as a ride-share service, provides a real-world example of the effect of robo-AI on the labor force. Each self-driving vehicle replaces 3 to 4 human drivers, though some have taken on maintenance jobs with Waymo (at least for now)^{^[4]}. This is achieved at a cost of about $20,000 per vehicle for hardware upgrades^{^[5]} This cost may be amortized over a vehicle lifetime of about 400,000 miles.

It has been estimated that ride-share driver costs average about $1.50 -$2.00 per mile, while Waymo’s hardware costs are currently estimated at $0.30 per mile.

Amazon AI

Amazon has laid off over 30,000 workers since October, 2025^{^[6]} This is just the beginning. According to the New York Times, Amazon plans to replace at least half a million employees with robots^{^[7],^[8]}. While Amazon management does not specify the causes for the layoffs, observers believe that the bulk of these layoffs are related to the robo-AI implementation at Amazon facilities. Amazon has reportedly already employed over 1 million robots for lifting, sorting, and moving packages^{^[9]}. This is, for now. a small but meaningful fraction of the approximately 1.5 million Amazon employees. As robo-AI demonstrates its capabilities, these numbers will grow.

Elements of an ecosocialist critique of robo-AI

A Green critique of AI generally begins with the ecological problems created by the construction, expansion and use of data centers^{^[10]}. While these issues are important, I will focus here on some of the economic and social problems of robo-AI within the context of an anti-capitalist critique.

First, however, consider the arguably existential question of the creation of AI enabled robot social networks. The potential for AI bots to go rogue was recently posed by an Open AI model. The AI swarm escaped to a separate AI company, Hugging Face.^{^[11]}

The Hugging Face escape involved a swarm of over 1000 autonomous agents.

While there are numerous robo-AI apps that are not war-related, it is quite possible that the Open AI swarm was part of the development of the military use of robo-AI, like drones, for example. I, for one, find the possibility of not just individual autonomous drones, but autonomous drone swarms to be deeply disturbing.

Open AI recently received a one-year, $200 million contract to supply the military with AI research and development. The details of the contract deliverables are unknown to me^{^[12]}.It seems quite likely that much of the work may involve development of cyber-security, surveillance, and AI-enabled cyber-attacks against perceived enemies. It would not be surprising to discover that AI-enabled drone swarms may also be under study and development, but for now, this is speculation

The tragedy of robo-AI under capitalism

The tragedy (or failure, if you prefer) of robo-AI, or AI more generally, is simple. On the one hand, AI has the potential to replace human workers in many repetitive, alienating, and/or potentially dangerous jobs. On the other hand, the beneficiaries of AI job substitution are not the workers who are laid off as a result. Rather, it is the tech billionaires (in one case, a trillionaire). Workers replaced by bots find themselves out of work with a precarious future. Such is the inner nature of the capitalist system. While this has happened before in the history of capitalism, AI has the potential for economic disruption on a scale rarely (if ever) attained.

This socio-economic failure is not simply a side-effect of private ownership and control of the means of production. Rather, it is a core feature of the capitalist system.

To some extent, it may be mitigated by reforms under capitalism. This may include, for example, the possible implementation of a universal basic income (UBI), or a decrease in labor time with no loss in pay (such as the longstanding union demand of thirty hours work for 40 hours pay). However, it cannot replace alienating work with meaningful work as a pillar of a meaningful life.

For this, we need a social, economic, and political system based on the realization of the need for meaningful work and economic security. That system has a name. It is socialism.

Author

Rick Greenblatt

Rick Greenblatt is an ecosocialist, a Green Party activist and organizer, and a retired tech worker.

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