In the agricultural era, the value of a cow lay in its ability to plow fields and pull carts; as long as the agricultural output it generated exceeded the feed required to raise it, raising cattle was a profitable business.
This is akin to the old societal logic of “more children, more blessings”—if the output of production tools (or labor) exceeds the input, it is considered a “high-quality asset” in the eyes of capital.
Today’s AI robots are at a critical stage of “growing from calf to plow cow.” They can already replace customer service by answering repetitive inquiries, assist designers in generating creative drafts, and help programmers identify basic code vulnerabilities, demonstrating the potential for “low investment and high output.”
This is like a child who has just learned to walk; although they cannot yet work, the signs of growth have already shown capital the shadow of “future labor force.”
The capital frenzy chasing AI is essentially a replication of the ancient logic of “enclosing land to raise cattle.” Previously, it was about occupying land for farming; later, it was about seizing urban resources for labor; now, it is about monopolizing computing power and data, competing for AI as the “tireless new labor force.”
Just as real estate developers once scrambled for land to bind people’s housing needs, today, tech capital is racing for the AI track to bind future societal production and service needs—whoever masters AI will control the “switch” of the next generation of productivity.
Look at those companies that are investing heavily in AI research and development; aren’t they also “giving birth”? The more “children” they produce (the broader the AI applications developed), the more human labor they can replace in the future, and the more astonishing the value created.
For ordinary people, if we cannot find our irreplaceability in this “new labor revolution,” we may end up in a predicament of being “rented by AI landlords,” just like the craftsmen who were replaced by machines in the past.
In this wave, some see an unemployment crisis, while others see new opportunities to “dance with AI.” After all, just as plow cows liberated humans to engage in more complex tasks, AI will ultimately free humanity from repetitive labor to explore more creative realms.
But this time, we must first understand: in the face of this “new labor force” called AI, do we want to be its “caretakers” or the objects being “cared for”?
Do you understand it now!?