Abolish AI Manifesto Calls for Liberation Beyond Capitalism

Summary

The unfinished “Abolish AI!” manifesto argues that AI is not a neutral tool but a cultural and political practice shaped by an oppressive society. It presents AI as a means of outsourcing human judgment and links its adoption to population control, authoritarianism, labor deskilling, ecological damage, privacy loss, harmful working conditions, education problems, psychological effects and military use. The authors distinguish abolition from simple opposition: they call for a liberatory alternative, drawing comparisons with slavery, prison, police and family abolition movements. They argue that AI abolition cannot be achieved within capitalism and instead belongs to a broader left-wing revolutionary project opposing what they call global technofascism. The manifesto deliberately leaves “AI” open to several meanings, including a set of technologies, a marketing term, a profit-driven product, a misconception about computers, and a cultural practice of outsourcing thought. It rejects the idea that harms can be mitigated while benefits are retained, asserting that the harms are integral to AI as currently organized and that there is no ethical AI under capitalism. The text urges readers to act despite feeling overwhelmed: build supportive communities, learn and share critical perspectives, replace AI-mediated activities with analogue practices, reduce dependence on technological conveniences, organize in person, speak to decision-makers and wider publics, hold demonstrations, conferences and strikes, build community resources, and take direct action against instruments of oppression. It closes by clarifying that abolition does not mean abolishing mathematics or models as abstract entities, but ending the human cultural practice and uncritical adoption associated with AI.