The authors intend to reflect on the “metamorphosis of work” in the dairy farms of the Villa María Basin (Córdoba, Argentina) as a consequence of the robotization and automation of production. In this sense, they emphasize the changes in the “politics of the senses” that update the ways of touching and looking at the dairy farms, simultaneously updating the demands of capital for the use of labor force and introducing new mechanisms of control and surveillance. The proposed approach recovers testimonies from the protagonists of the “metamorphosis” indicated to reflect on the policy of changes in capitalism.
TopIntroduction
Since the launch of ChatGPT on November 30, 2022, discussions, projections, and speculations regarding the impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) on work, education, and life, in general, have continued to escalate.1 In this regard, in March 2023, researchers from OpenAI, Open Research, and the University of Pennsylvania published an article on the potential impact of AI, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs), on the American economy and productivity (Eloundou, et al, 2023). Most of the surveyed occupations exhibit some degree of exposure to the capabilities of LLMs, not entirely, but concerning specific tasks. Occupations with high salaries are particularly exposed to new software and digital tools, such as those based on text input and output. Thus, among the sectors most susceptible to AI technologies are data and information processing industries and hospitals. On the other hand, among the list of occupations that did not manifest exposed tasks, we find agricultural equipment operators, mechanics and diesel engine specialists, meat processors and packers, masons, cooks, dishwashers, and other trades.
Overall, factors related to the incorporation of AI into production processes include assumed increases in productivity resulting from these technological innovations, as well as the reduction of operating costs associated with the displacement and/or “replacement” of high-wage labor tasks (in relative terms). Furthermore, these factors can be interpreted as aligning with the economic interests of companies dedicated to the development of artificial intelligence (such as OpenAI)2, the implementation of digital transformation processes (Open Research)3, or financial capital in general. In this latter sense, the case of BuzzFeed enables us to understand that it is the representatives of financial capital (the shareholders) who demand the “replacement” of human labor with artificial intelligence4.
In recent decades, work has been undergoing a profound reconfiguration within the framework of the restructuring of social relations within the capitalist system. The exponential development of capital productivity has been driving an increasing process of mechanization in productive sectors, resulting in various transformations, including job precariousness, impoverishment, unemployment, and other effects (Antunes, 2020). We are currently going through a technological revolution characterized by the growing digitization of social relations in the context of a “Society 4.0”. Scribano and Lisdero (2019) delve into the characterization of this stage, emphasizing the use of: a) more data managed by companies, b) powerful and affordable computers, c) analytical capabilities, and d) improvements in interactions between people and machines, robots, artificial intelligence, and 3D printers, based on the concept of “Societies 4.0.” In this way, cost reduction, improvements in production lines, and the use of new databases are some of the central outcomes derived from these characteristics.
Digitalization has become a central component in the study of current changes in the world of work, due to the impact of AI on the conditions of reproduction of the workforce, how people interact with each other, resources, time and space, professional tools, and meanings. associated with work, and the disposition of bodies/emotions as forms of value management in the system of social relations. These changes gain greater relevance when we observe how this digitization of relationships intertwines with work and daily life, playing a key role in the development of “social sensibilities.” We understand these as the ways of “organizing perceptions, sensations, and emotions,” with a particular focus on the body as the medium through which social agents perceive the world through the “impressions that impact the forms of 'exchange' with the social-environmental context” (Scribano, 2012, p. 100).5 In this way, work, in its central role in shaping the social structure, is not exempt from the influence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) facilitated by internet use across various productive sectors.