Is AI a revolutionary leap forward for humanity – or the latest crisis capitalism has engineered for itself? In this episode of Against the Stream, Hamid Alizadeh and Fred Weston cut through the hype to give a Marxist analysis of the AI bubble, its roots in capitalist crisis, and what it means for the working class.

From the S&P 500's absurd tech valuations to OpenAI's pyramid-scheme economics, they expose how artificial intelligence – far from rescuing the global economy – is accelerating the same contradictions Marx diagnosed 150 years ago. The episode covers the AI stock bubble, the threat of mass unemployment, the de-skilling of the middle class, the collapse of European industry, the global debt crisis, and why the Luddites were right to be angry but wrong in their methods.

Most importantly the episode discussed why this technology could liberate humanity entirely – but only if it's taken out of the hands of the capitalists who own it.

New episodes of Against the Stream air every Thursday at 6pm GMT on YouTube.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS ⏱️

0:00 — Intro

1:34 — AI bubble

15:37 — World economy on the brink

16:32 — Unemployment

36:03 — Alienation

44:59 — The Luddites

50:35 — The potential under communism

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