AI will bring the world back to socialism by 2045

Artificial intelligence is transforming the foundations of economics. For more than a century, the debate between socialism and capitalism has revolved around scarcity, labor, and ownership. With AI, those foundations are shifting. By delivering productivity at a scale that far exceeds human effort, AI is opening the door to a revival of socialism, not because of ideology but because circumstances will demand it.

The unique power of AI lies in its ability to replicate cognitive work. Past technologies mechanised muscles; AI replicates reasoning, design, and problem-solving. Once trained, an AI model can perform millions of tasks at almost no cost, scaling instantly across industries and borders. This loosens the link between human labor and economic output, raising questions about how society should share wealth when machines generate most of it.

Scarcity, long the anchor of economic systems, begins to fade in certain areas. Generative AI already produces text, images, and software code in limitless supply. Automation in manufacturing and logistics steadily reduces costs. While not everything becomes abundant, many essential goods and services, such as education, healthcare advice, and legal information, can be provided cheaply or even freely. Once basic needs are no longer scarce, societies will face pressure to treat them as universal entitlements. That is a distinctly socialist impulse.

The disruption of work adds further urgency. Earlier technological revolutions eliminated some jobs but created others, and the promise was that workers would eventually adjust. AI challenges that cycle by competing directly in knowledge work. Law, finance, journalism, and education are already being reshaped. If millions of people find themselves permanently sidelined, governments will need to guarantee livelihoods through measures like universal basic income or expanded public services. Redistribution will be seen less as ideology and more as survival.

At first, AI may deepen inequality. The infrastructure and algorithms are owned by a small number of corporations with the capital to build massive data centers. This resembles the early stages of industrial capitalism, when factory owners captured most of the gains. Yet history suggests such concentration rarely lasts unchallenged. Just as trade unions and welfare states emerged in response to industrial monopolies, political movements will rise to demand collective ownership or regulation of AI. Calls to treat advanced models as public utilities will grow louder as dependence on them increases. 

Redistribution in this environment will also be a matter of economic stability. Economies cannot function if productivity soars but purchasing power collapses. Governments will likely pursue systems that spread AI-driven wealth widely. This may mean shorter workweeks, guaranteed income, or universal access to AI-based services. These steps are pragmatic attempts to sustain consumption and cohesion, yet they echo socialist principles. 

What emerges will not resemble 20th-century state socialism. Central planning once failed because no bureaucracy could manage scarce resources effectively. AI, however, may achieve what planners could not. Algorithms can match supply and demand in real time, optimise logistics, and minimise waste with unprecedented precision. This opens the possibility of hybrid systems where markets remain useful in some sectors, while collective provisioning dominates wherever goods and services can be delivered at negligible cost. 

The core issue will be fairness. Capitalism thrived when labor and capital combined to create productivity. Once machines deliver abundance without human effort, the justification for extreme inequality weakens. The central debate will shift from whether redistribution is desirable to how best to design it. Societies may experiment with digital wealth funds, taxes on AI-generated profits, or public ownership of key algorithms. 

AI is not simply another wave of automation. It redefines the relationship between labor, capital, and production, and in doing so, undermines the logic of scarcity that sustained capitalist dominance. As productivity becomes abundant, arguments for collective distribution gain force. The return of socialism in this context will not come as revolution or ideology. It will come as a practical response to prosperity that demands to be shared. 

(Views are personal; the author is a leading voice on AI, who spent 10 years at JP Morgan leading AI research, and is an investor in AI companies)