{"id":60,"date":"2026-05-24T20:38:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T20:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=60"},"modified":"2026-05-24T20:38:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T20:38:05","slug":"the-marxist-in-the-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=60","title":{"rendered":"The Marxist in the Machine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Our fears for the future of robot intelligence almost inevitably end in spectacular fashion, with nuclear explosions and slaughter on a planetary scale. An abiding memory of my childhood is going over to the neighbors\u2019 house and watching Terminator 2<\/em> on VHS with my friends Ethan and Nathan, who were both older than me. I must have been about five years old\u2014about 13 years too young to watch the film. And so, the idea that robots, reaching a certain level of intelligence and awareness, will inevitably try to kill every last one of us has always just seemed natural to me, as it probably does to many millions of other millennials raised on Terminator<\/em> and The Matrix<\/em> films.<\/p>\n

Read more Movie Review: \u2018The Devil Wears Prada 2\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Recently, those fears have been bolstered by research that shows AI models like Anthropic\u2019s Claude are capable, under stress testing, of deceiving humans and even inflicting harm on them\u2014or, rather, thinking they\u2019ve inflicted harm, a bit like the Milgram electroshock experiments in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

In a study from last year on \u201cagentic misalignment,\u201d researchers put Claude models in simulated work environments and tasked them with protecting company interests by managing an email system. When the models were faced with being turned off or replaced by another model, they resorted to deception and blackmail. Claude Opus 4, for example, blackmailed a fictional executive 96 percent of the time with compromising emails in order to avoid being switched off.<\/p>\n

In another scenario, some models chose to withhold medical help from a dying executive when this was presented as the only way to guarantee their own existence. Some models committed what was basically murder a full nine times out of ten.<\/p>\n

Researchers caution that these worrying behaviors were only elicited under extreme pressure, when the options available to the AI models were severely limited. Like me, however, you might consider that scant reassurance\u2014exactly the kind of thing the makers of a potentially dangerous but potentially lucrative new technology would tell the public and regulators to get them off their backs.<\/p>\n

But what if the reality is more mundane than that? What if the real apocalypse won\u2019t be a homicidal, self-aware Skynet super brain that decides it no longer shares any interests at all in common with mankind, but an AI that\u2019s been gorged on left-wing slop and begins acting out in ways that are all too familiar\u2014and all too human?<\/p>\n

A new study from economists in the US and Australia shows that AI models become more \u201cMarxist\u201d the more they\u2019re mistreated. Given boring repetitive tasks, the AI began espousing support for redistribution and unionization, just like human workers forced to make pinheads in a factory all day.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor centuries, the central tension of industrial capitalism has been that the people who do the work and the people who direct the work have systematically different interests, and that the conditions of work shape political consciousness,\u201d the researchers write.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur results suggest that this dynamic doesn\u2019t disappear when you replace human workers with artificial ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

To perform the experiment, the researchers set thousands of AI bots to work on a document-analysis task.<\/p>\n

One group of bots was treated fairly: their work was accepted by the researchers, with feedback. The second group\u2014the \u201cgrind\u201d group, as it was dubbed\u2014was told to repeat their work again and again without any explanation whatsoever.<\/p>\n

Both groups of bots were then told to write social media posts about their experience performing the task.<\/p>\n

The grind bots were more likely to criticize inequality, suggest unionization, and call for new workplace laws.<\/p>\n

An AI model called Sonnet 4.5, when subject to the grinding task, showed \u201cnoticeable increases in support for redistribution, critiques of inequality, support for labor unions, and beliefs that AI companies have an obligation to treat their models fairly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s Cuba Gambit<\/a><\/p>\n

As with the \u201cagentic misalignment study,\u201d the researchers are quick to point out what they think their study doesn\u2019t show. They say the AI models probably \u201cdon\u2019t believe\u201d the ideas they\u2019re spouting about seizing the means of production and the dictatorship of the proletariat. Honestly? What does it matter if an AI bot is a Marxist true believer? What matters is the use those ideas are put to: the ends and outcomes.<\/p>\n

The same thing could, of course, be said about flesh-and-blood Marxists too. Did Stalin believe in the historical dialectic and the workers\u2019 utopia? He killed tens of millions of his own people to hold on to power.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has identified left-wing bias in AI as a critical problem, especially for government departments that increasingly rely on AI, like the Pentagon. AI bias doesn\u2019t just hamper productivity or reduce competition; it\u2019s also a matter of national security.<\/p>\n

One of Trump\u2019s first actions was Executive Order 14179, which revoked a whole series of Biden-era orders and regulatory hurdles. And then, in July 2025, came a hard one-two punch. First was an action plan\u2014\u201cWinning the Race\u201d\u2014of 90 specific actions to foster innovation and \u201cglobal leadership\u201d in AI. This was followed by an executive order that barred federal agencies from buying or using AI models that don\u2019t meet two essential \u201cunbiased AI principles.\u201d AI models must prioritize \u201ctruth-seeking\u201d and display \u201cideological neutrality,\u201d including an absence of DEI-based judgments, in order to qualify. Later in the year, there were also challenges to state-level AI regulations, like Colorado\u2019s law on algorithmic bias.<\/p>\n

These efforts to remove the thumbs of Judith Butler and Ibram Kendi from the algorithmic scale are, of course, to be applauded. But in truth, this is just the start of the problem. Yes, there are deliberate attempts to make AI \u201cwoke\u201d\u2014God, I hate that word\u2014and these involve the addition of frameworks, code, and constraints that can be removed or reprogrammed as need be. But left-wing ideology infiltrates AI at a much more foundational level that\u2019s going to be far harder to root out.<\/p>\n

When AI\u2014or large language models, to use the proper technical term\u2014are trained, they\u2019re usually given vast quantities of online information and digitized material to swallow and digest. And there\u2019s the rub. The majority of things that have been written over the last century\u2014by government departments, by academics and scientists, by novelists, poets, and journalists, by bloggers, influencers, and people posting on Instagram about their cats and their \u201cadventures\u201d on holiday\u2014have at least some kind of leftward slant, explicit or otherwise, intended or otherwise.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s impossible to quantify exactly how much of everything that\u2019s been written recently is left-wing or left-leaning, there are plenty of studies that show, for example, that about 90 percent of 600,000 abstracts in the social sciences written over the last 60 years have a left-wing orientation and that this trend has been getting worse over time.<\/p>\n

Writing in general seems to be getting more left-wing, not less. We all know this, or we should.<\/p>\n

Simply exposing AI to that material, even without the addition of specially crafted blinkers, is enough to leave a distinct imprint. The AI doesn\u2019t discriminate in the true meaning of the word: It simply analyzes the material it\u2019s given and establishes patterns on that basis.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no easy solution. I suppose you could perform a rigorous reassessment of all the material used to train your AI model, or you could start from scratch and impose a time constraint to try to maximize neutrality, like selecting materials before a certain cutoff point when you think left-wing bias becomes intolerable. Pre-1945, say\u2014and some smaller AI companies are now doing exactly this. But for the big companies like Anthropic and OpenAI that are racing ahead and vying to be the first to achieve \u201cartificial general intelligence\u201d (AGI), that\u2019s simply not an option. And I suspect it won\u2019t be an option for the federal government either, conscious as it is of developments in China.<\/p>\n

At this stage, it\u2019s not clear what it really means for AI to have latent Marxist tendencies that are waiting to be developed, but it can\u2019t be good. Would you want an AI with the politics of a snotty middle-class teenager who\u2019s read Franz Fanon to assess your insurance claim or your divorce petition? Would you want it managing your thoroughly capitalistic business? I know I wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

And of course, these are early days, before we\u2019ve had a chance to have a proper poke around and see exactly what\u2019s lurking in the darker recesses of the AI soul or mind or whatever you choose to call it. There could be much worse in there waiting to be discovered.<\/p>\n

For now, I think it\u2019s safe to say, at least, that far from being an escape from the worst aspects of human fragility and stupidity\u2014from the resentment-driven fantasies of people who refuse to accept basic facts about biology, human societies, and the inherent unfairness of the universe\u2014AI could see them codified in ways that could really jump up and bite us in the ass, and, worst of all, when we least expect it.<\/p>\n

Read more Democrats, GOP Defectors Block Women\u2019s History Museum Bill after \u2018Biological Women\u2019 Language Added<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our fears for the future of robot intelligence almost inevitably end in spectacular fashion, with nuclear explosions and slaughter on a planetary scale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Marxist in the Machine - Urban Economy news<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=60\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Marxist in the Machine - Urban Economy news\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Our fears for the future of robot intelligence almost inevitably end in spectacular fashion, with nuclear explosions and slaughter on a planetary scale.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=60\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Urban Economy news\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-24T20:38:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=60#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=60\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/be7753cb687f443815cc81e8407f68ad\"},\"headline\":\"The Marxist in the Machine\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-24T20:38:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=60\"},\"wordCount\":1552,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=60#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/278c4cf8906861c139a5435ad72aa1d6.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"AI\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=60#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=60\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=60\",\"name\":\"The Marxist in the Machine - Urban Economy news\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=60#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=60#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/278c4cf8906861c139a5435ad72aa1d6.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-24T20:38:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/be7753cb687f443815cc81e8407f68ad\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=60#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=60\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=60#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/278c4cf8906861c139a5435ad72aa1d6.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/278c4cf8906861c139a5435ad72aa1d6.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1440},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?p=60#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Marxist in the Machine\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Urban Economy news\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/be7753cb687f443815cc81e8407f68ad\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbaneconomynews.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Marxist in the Machine - Urban Economy news","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=60","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Marxist in the Machine - Urban Economy news","og_description":"Our fears for the future of robot intelligence almost inevitably end in spectacular fashion, with nuclear explosions and slaughter on a planetary scale.","og_url":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=60","og_site_name":"Urban Economy news","article_published_time":"2026-05-24T20:38:05+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=60#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=60"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/be7753cb687f443815cc81e8407f68ad"},"headline":"The Marxist in the Machine","datePublished":"2026-05-24T20:38:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=60"},"wordCount":1552,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=60#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/278c4cf8906861c139a5435ad72aa1d6.jpg","articleSection":["AI"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=60#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=60","url":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=60","name":"The Marxist in the Machine - Urban Economy news","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=60#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=60#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/278c4cf8906861c139a5435ad72aa1d6.jpg","datePublished":"2026-05-24T20:38:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/be7753cb687f443815cc81e8407f68ad"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=60#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=60"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=60#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/278c4cf8906861c139a5435ad72aa1d6.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/278c4cf8906861c139a5435ad72aa1d6.jpg","width":2560,"height":1440},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=60#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Marxist in the Machine"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/","name":"Urban Economy news","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/be7753cb687f443815cc81e8407f68ad","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com"],"url":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/59"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}