Towards a political economy of algorithmic capitalism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5144640 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Martyn Egan (0000-0001-8070-5964, Trinity College, Ireland, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 199-211 |
| Publication date | 2025-03-16 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Capital & Class (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0309-8168 • E-ISSN: 2041-0980 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/03098168251326189 |
| OpenAlex | W4408499178 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 21 |
The emergence of large language models such as GPT3 has prompted intense debate about the transformative potential of generative AI to 'revolutionise' knowledge work and disrupt economic activity. This article represents an initial attempt to problematise this phenomenon within a Marxist analytical framework. Borrowing the term 'algorithmic capitalism' to refer both to the broad family of generative AI models and their anticipated effects on the social form, the article offers a two-stage analysis towards a potential political economy of this new technology. First, drawing on a classical Marxist analysis of labour-capital relations, the article investigates shocks to the exchange value of labour within knowledge work which are likely to arise from the widespread uptake of generative AI. Second, the article considers the semiotic effects of generative AI, and attempts to position these within the Marxist literature on the commodity fetish via Baudrillard's concept of the hyperreal. In so doing, the article argues that the emergence of generative AI can be also understood in terms of a further advance of the commodity fetish, in which meaning itself is reified
Capitalism · Economic system · Economics · Market economy · Neoclassical economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law
The future of employment
Technical Change, Inequality, and the Labor Market
For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign
Labor and Monopoly Capital
Capital
Simulacra and Simulation
Association between Workers’ Anxiety over Technological Automation and Sleep Disturbance
The Power of Algorithmic Capitalism
Geographies of high frequency trading – Algorithmic capitalism and its contradictory elements
Alienation and action in the young Marx, Aristotle, and Arendt
Out of One, Many
Synthetic Replacements for Human Survey Data? The Perils of Large Language Models
Knowledge, Knowledge Work and Organizations
Responsible Autonomy Versus Direct Control Over the Labour Process
Why Artificial Intelligence Will Not Outsmart Complex Knowledge Work
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |