Will A.I. Become the New McKinsey? – The New Yorker
When we talk about artificial intelligence, we rely on metaphor, as we always do when dealing with something new and unfamiliar. Metaphors are, by their nature, imperfect, but we still need to choose them carefully, because bad ones can lead us astray. For example, its become very common to compare powerful A.I.s to genies in fairy tales. The metaphor is meant to highlight the difficulty of making powerful entities obey your commands; the computer scientist Stuart Russell has cited the parable of King Midas, who demanded that everything he touched turn into gold, to illustrate the dangers of an A.I. doing what you tell it to do instead of what you want it to do. There are multiple problems with this metaphor, but one of them is that it derives the wrong lessons from the tale to which it refers. The point of the Midas parable is that greed will destroy you, and that the pursuit of wealth will cost you everything that is truly important. If your reading of the parable is that, when you are granted a wish by the gods, you should phrase your wish very, very carefully, then you have missed the point.
So, I would like to propose another metaphor for the risks of artificial intelligence. I suggest that we think about A.I. as a management-consulting firm, along the lines of McKinsey & Company. Firms like McKinsey are hired for a wide variety of reasons, and A.I. systems are used for many reasons, too. But the similarities between McKinseya consulting firm that works with ninety per cent of the Fortune 100and A.I. are also clear. Social-media companies use machine learning to keep users glued to their feeds. In a similar way, Purdue Pharma used McKinsey to figure out how to turbocharge sales of OxyContin during the opioid epidemic. Just as A.I. promises to offer managers a cheap replacement for human workers, so McKinsey and similar firms helped normalize the practice of mass layoffs as a way of increasing stock prices and executive compensation, contributing to the destruction of the middle class in America.
A former McKinsey employee has described the company as capitals willing executioners: if you want something done but dont want to get your hands dirty, McKinsey will do it for you. That escape from accountability is one of the most valuable services that management consultancies provide. Bosses have certain goals, but dont want to be blamed for doing whats necessary to achieve those goals; by hiring consultants, management can say that they were just following independent, expert advice. Even in its current rudimentary form, A.I. has become a way for a company to evade responsibility by saying that its just doing what the algorithm says, even though it was the company that commissioned the algorithm in the first place.
The question we should be asking is: as A.I. becomes more powerful and flexible, is there any way to keep it from being another version of McKinsey? The question is worth considering across different meanings of the term A.I. If you think of A.I. as a broad set of technologies being marketed to companies to help them cut their costs, the question becomes: how do we keep those technologies from working as capitals willing executioners? Alternatively, if you imagine A.I. as a semi-autonomous software program that solves problems that humans ask it to solve, the question is then: how do we prevent that software from assisting corporations in ways that make peoples lives worse? Suppose youve built a semi-autonomous A.I. thats entirely obedient to humansone that repeatedly checks to make sure it hasnt misinterpreted the instructions it has received. This is the dream of many A.I. researchers. Yet such software could easily still cause as much harm as McKinsey has.
Note that you cannot simply say that you will build A.I. that only offers pro-social solutions to the problems you ask it to solve. Thats the equivalent of saying that you can defuse the threat of McKinsey by starting a consulting firm that only offers such solutions. The reality is that Fortune 100 companies will hire McKinsey instead of your pro-social firm, because McKinseys solutions will increase shareholder value more than your firms solutions will. It will always be possible to build A.I. that pursues shareholder value above all else, and most companies will prefer to use that A.I. instead of one constrained by your principles.
Is there a way for A.I. to do something other than sharpen the knife blade of capitalism? Just to be clear, when I refer to capitalism, Im not talking about the exchange of goods or services for prices determined by a market, which is a property of many economic systems. When I refer to capitalism, Im talking about a specific relationship between capital and labor, in which private individuals who have money are able to profit off the effort of others. So, in the context of this discussion, whenever I criticize capitalism, Im not criticizing the idea of selling things; Im criticizing the idea that people who have lots of money get to wield power over people who actually work. And, more specifically, Im criticizing the ever-growing concentration of wealth among an ever-smaller number of people, which may or may not be an intrinsic property of capitalism but which absolutely characterizes capitalism as it is practiced today.
As it is currently deployed, A.I. often amounts to an effort to analyze a task that human beings perform and figure out a way to replace the human being. Coincidentally, this is exactly the type of problem that management wants solved. As a result, A.I. assists capital at the expense of labor. There isnt really anything like a labor-consulting firm that furthers the interests of workers. Is it possible for A.I. to take on that role? Can A.I. do anything to assist workers instead of management?
Some might say that its not the job of A.I. to oppose capitalism. That may be true, but its not the job of A.I. to strengthen capitalism, either. Yet that is what it currently does. If we cannot come up with ways for A.I. to reduce the concentration of wealth, then Id say its hard to argue that A.I. is a neutral technology, let alone a beneficial one.
Many people think that A.I. will create more unemployment, and bring up universal basic income, or U.B.I., as a solution to that problem. In general, I like the idea of universal basic income; however, over time, Ive become skeptical about the way that people who work in A.I. suggest U.B.I. as a response to A.I.-driven unemployment. It would be different if we already had universal basic income, but we dont, so expressing support for it seems like a way for the people developing A.I. to pass the buck to the government. In effect, they are intensifying the problems that capitalism creates with the expectation that, when those problems become bad enough, the government will have no choice but to step in. As a strategy for making the world a better place, this seems dubious.
You may remember that, in the run-up to the 2016 election, the actress Susan Sarandonwho was a fervent supporter of Bernie Sanderssaid that voting for Donald Trump would be better than voting for Hillary Clinton because it would bring about the revolution more quickly. I dont know how deeply Sarandon had thought this through, but the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj iek said the same thing, and Im pretty sure he had given a lot of thought to the matter. He argued that Trumps election would be such a shock to the system that it would bring about change.
What iek advocated for is an example of an idea in political philosophy known as accelerationism. There are a lot of different versions of accelerationism, but the common thread uniting left-wing accelerationists is the notion that the only way to make things better is to make things worse. Accelerationism says that its futile to try to oppose or reform capitalism; instead, we have to exacerbate capitalisms worst tendencies until the entire system breaks down. The only way to move beyond capitalism is to stomp on the gas pedal of neoliberalism until the engine explodes.
I suppose this is one way to bring about a better world, but, if its the approach that the A.I. industry is adopting, I want to make sure everyone is clear about what theyre working toward. By building A.I. to do jobs previously performed by people, A.I. researchers are increasing the concentration of wealth to such extreme levels that the only way to avoid societal collapse is for the government to step in. Intentionally or not, this is very similar to voting for Trump with the goal of bringing about a better world. And the rise of Trump illustrates the risks of pursuing accelerationism as a strategy: things can get very bad, and stay very bad for a long time, before they get better. In fact, you have no idea of how long it will take for things to get better; all you can be sure of is that there will be significant pain and suffering in the short and medium term.
Im not very convinced by claims that A.I. poses a danger to humanity because it might develop goals of its own and prevent us from turning it off. However, I do think that A.I. is dangerous inasmuch as it increases the power of capitalism. The doomsday scenario is not a manufacturing A.I. transforming the entire planet into paper clips, as one famous thought experiment has imagined. Its A.I.-supercharged corporations destroying the environment and the working class in their pursuit of shareholder value. Capitalism is the machine that will do whatever it takes to prevent us from turning it off, and the most successful weapon in its arsenal has been its campaign to prevent us from considering any alternatives.
People who criticize new technologies are sometimes called Luddites, but its helpful to clarify what the Luddites actually wanted. The main thing they were protesting was the fact that their wages were falling at the same time that factory owners profits were increasing, along with food prices. They were also protesting unsafe working conditions, the use of child labor, and the sale of shoddy goods that discredited the entire textile industry. The Luddites did not indiscriminately destroy machines; if a machines owner paid his workers well, they left it alone. The Luddites were not anti-technology; what they wanted was economic justice. They destroyed machinery as a way to get factory owners attention. The fact that the word Luddite is now used as an insult, a way of calling someone irrational and ignorant, is a result of a smear campaign by the forces of capital.
Whenever anyone accuses anyone else of being a Luddite, its worth asking, is the person being accused actually against technology? Or are they in favor of economic justice? And is the person making the accusation actually in favor of improving peoples lives? Or are they just trying to increase the private accumulation of capital?
Today, we find ourselves in a situation in which technology has become conflated with capitalism, which has in turn become conflated with the very notion of progress. If you try to criticize capitalism, you are accused of opposing both technology and progress. But what does progress even mean, if it doesnt include better lives for people who work? What is the point of greater efficiency, if the money being saved isnt going anywhere except into shareholders bank accounts? We should all strive to be Luddites, because we should all be more concerned with economic justice than with increasing the private accumulation of capital. We need to be able to criticize harmful uses of technologyand those include uses that benefit shareholders over workerswithout being described as opponents of technology.
Excerpt from:
Will A.I. Become the New McKinsey? - The New Yorker
- ADVANCING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE EDUCATION FOR AMERICAN YOUTH - The White House (.gov) - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Some of California's troubled bar exam was drafted by nonlawyers with help from artificial intelligence - ABA Journal - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Trump Executive Order Calls for Artificial Intelligence to Be Taught in Schools - EdSurge - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Colorado lawmakers move to ban sexually exploitive images, video created with artificial intelligence - The Colorado Sun - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- US Department of Labor applauds President Trumps executive order advancing artificial intelligence education for young Americans - U.S. Department of... - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- 1 Magnificent Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock to Keep an Eye on Before It Starts Soaring - The Motley Fool - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture is Changing the Way Farmers Farm - Farms.com - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Artificial intelligence tool development: what clinicians need to know? - BMC Medicine - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- President Donald Trump Just Dealt a Jarring Blow to Nvidia. Can the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chip King Recover and Reclaim Its Previous Highs? -... - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Palantir Surged Again Today -- Is the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock a Buy? - The Motley Fool - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- How Artificial Intelligence Is Enhancing Cryptocurrency Security and Fraud Detection - Programming Insider - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Education - The A&T Register - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- 2 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks That Could Soar in the Second Half of 2025 - Yahoo Finance - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth (Trump EO Tracker) - Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Why Pony AI Is Winning the Artificial Intelligence Race Today - The Motley Fool - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Artificial Intelligence in Military Market is Forecasted to Reach US$ 15.62 Billion in 2029, Says Stratview Research - openPR.com - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Nurses Perception of Artificial Intelligence-Driven Monitoring Systems for Enhancing Compliance With Infection Prevention and Control Measures in... - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- 4 Reasons CrowdStrike Is Still a Top Artificial Intelligence Stock Buy Right Now - The Motley Fool - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Prediction: 2 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks That Could Be Worth More Than Nvidia by 2030 - The Motley Fool - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- 3 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks That Could Soar in the Second Half of 2025 - The Motley Fool - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- AI-powered diagnostics: What physicians need to know about artificial intelligence diagnosing patients - Medical Economics - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Palantir Surged Again Today -- Is the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock a Buy? - MSN - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Commentary: From artificial intelligence to 'natural stupidity' - The Business Journals - April 25th, 2025 [April 25th, 2025]
- Nvidia Is Expensive. Here Are 3 High-Yield Artificial Intelligence Plays That Aren't. - Nasdaq - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- Incorporation of explainable artificial intelligence in ensemble machine learning-driven pancreatic cancer diagnosis - Nature - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- Artificial intelligence in the Kyrgyz Republic: a silent transformation in the making? - World Bank Blogs - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- Does Netflix Have the Right Artificial Intelligence (AI) Ideas? - The Motley Fool - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- Impact of artificial intelligence on elections topic of Edmonds Civic Roundtable May 5 meeting - My Edmonds News - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- 1 Market-Beating Artificial Intelligence (AI) ETF That Could Turn $250,000 Into $1 Million - Nasdaq - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- The Oasis Group and AdvisorEngine Release Research Report on Artificial Intelligence Note Takers - Yahoo Finance - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- This May Be the Best Artificial Intelligence (AI) Semiconductor Stock to Buy Right Now - The Motley Fool - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- 2 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks to Buy on the Dip Right Now - The Motley Fool - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- 2 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks That Could Soar in the Second Half of 2025 - The Motley Fool - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- 3 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks That Can Skyrocket Up to 232%, According to Select Wall Street Analysts - The Motley Fool - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- Artificial Intelligence Solves One of Archaeologys Greatest Puzzles - The Daily Galaxy - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- What's next in artificial intelligence according to a tech visionary who may hold the cards to our future - CBS News - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- 1 Market-Beating Artificial Intelligence (AI) ETF That Could Turn $250,000 Into $1 Million - The Motley Fool - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- DIGI360: Digital transformation, cybersecurity, and the future of artificial intelligence in one event - EntrepreNerd - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- The American Film Academy is not against the use of artificial intelligence in films - Mezha.Media - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- Artificial Intelligence In Omics Studies Market Massive Growth - openPR.com - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- Artificial Intelligence and The Prospect of De-Globalization - Modern Diplomacy - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- China to rely on artificial intelligence in education reform bid - Reuters - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- Artificial Intelligence What's all the fuss? - The Hacker News - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Marketing Market Expected to Reach USD 104.85 Billion by 2030 - openPR.com - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- Alumni Association To Offer Online Artificial Intelligence Course To All Penn State Alumni - Onward State - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- Nvidia Is Expensive. Here Are 3 High-Yield Artificial Intelligence Plays That Aren't. - The Motley Fool - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- AI Week: Exploring the Future of Artificial Intelligence - www.alfred.edu - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- 1 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock-Buyback Stock to Buy Hand Over Fist During the Nasdaq Sell-Off - The Motley Fool - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- Was Talos, the Bronze Automaton Who Guarded the Island of Crete in Greek Myth, an Early Example of Artificial Intelligence? - Smithsonian Magazine - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- Prediction: These 2 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Giants Will Outperform Nvidia Over the Next 5 Years - The Motley Fool - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- Galaxy Announces Commitment with CoreWeave to Host Additional Artificial Intelligence and High-Performance Computing Infrastructure at Helios Data... - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- Tariff Turmoil: One Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock Down 26% to Buy Hand Over Fist Right Now - The Motley Fool - April 23rd, 2025 [April 23rd, 2025]
- EU to invest $1.4 billion in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and digital skills - Reuters - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- Virginia Governor Vetoes Artificial Intelligence Bill HB 2094: What the Veto Means for Businesses - Ogletree Deakins - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- Artificial Intelligence, China, and Americas Next Industrial Revolution - The National Interest Online - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- SEC Roundtable on Artificial Intelligence in the Financial Industry - SEC.gov - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- Prediction: This Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock Will Join Nvidia, Meta Platforms, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet in the Trillion-Dollar... - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- 3 Subtle Ways Warren Buffett Is Investing in the $15.7 Trillion Artificial Intelligence (AI) Revolution - The Motley Fool - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- Did Artificial Intelligence Technology Drive Startup Activity in the US from 2010 to 2023? - International Banker - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- Data and artificial intelligence: the fuel behind space discovery - SpaceNews - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming PlayStation Games - PSX Extreme - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- The Role of Artificial Intelligence in the Prediction, Diagnosis, and Management of Cardiovascular Diseases: A Narrative Review - Cureus - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- Red Team Tactics Grow More Sophisticated with Advancements in Artificial Intelligence - GBHackers - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- YOUR BITES, YOUR RIGHTS: PEPSI USES ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO REINVENT THE WAY YOU ORDER FOOD - MarComm News - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- Before You Rush to Buy Nvidia, Here Are 3 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks You Can't Afford to Ignore - The Motley Fool - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- Cleveland Clinic and G42 to Advance Healthcare through Artificial Intelligence - Cleveland Clinic Newsroom - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- Threat to the development of artificial intelligence: China expects shortage of American processors - - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- Will the Truth Survive Artificial Intelligence? Our Next Live Debate! - The FP - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in Minimally Invasive and Complex Surgical Procedures: A Systematic Review - Cureus - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- An artificial intelligence agent developed in Cuba has been presented - CiberCuba - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- Prediction: These 2 Unstoppable Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks Will Be Worth More Than $1 Trillion by the End of 2025 - Nasdaq - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- Artificial intelligence and the law in the Philippines - Law.asia - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- Doctor explains how artificial intelligence is already being deployed in medical care - The Southern - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- News | Tech experts, hoteliers press for wider adoption of artificial intelligence in hospitality - CoStar Group - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- EU to invest $1.4 billion in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and digital skills - Global Banking And Finance Review - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- SoundHound AI Has Been My Favorite Artificial Intelligence Stock in 2025. Here's Why I'm Not Changing Course in the Sell-Off. - The Motley Fool - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- 1 Surprising Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock Warren Buffett Owns That Investors Should Buy on the Dip - The Motley Fool - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- AI: How Alignment and Inertia Will Determine Higher Education's Artificial Intelligence Success - Fast Company - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- Lexington-Richland 5 considers using artificial intelligence in schools - Lexington County Chronicle - March 28th, 2025 [March 28th, 2025]
- Artificial intelligence to be used in Arizona's wildfire defense - FOX 10 News Phoenix - March 25th, 2025 [March 25th, 2025]