Swanson, David T.: Automation Without Emancipation: AI, Ownership, and the Crisis of Democratic Legitimacy

AI may increase the technical capacity of complex societies without increasing human freedom. If AI becomes core infrastructure for production, allocation, administration, and knowledge work, then the central political question is not simply how powerful the technology becomes, but who owns and governs it. Under concentrated ownership, automation may weaken labor’s bargaining power while preserving dependence on privately or technocratically controlled systems of access, coordination, and admini