Artificial intelligence is capitalism's final destination

Arundhati Roy argues that contemporary AI is the logical culmination of unchecked capitalism: a mechanized, profit-driven force that corrodes language, trust and social cohesion while consolidating power in the hands of tech billionaires. She frames the industry as a single, predatory entity - “Cyclopes” - whose leaders sell narratives of progress and existential risk to gain public legitimacy, government favors and vast resources. Roy details specific whistleblowers and incidents - an Anthropic engineer who quit over extinction risks, Meredith Whittaker’s opposition to drone surveillance contracts, Timnit Gebru’s research on the environmental and bias costs of large language models, and identified uses of AI in lethal military operations - to show how profit, surveillance and militarization are entwined with the technology’s rollout. She contends the industry welcomes high-drama warnings about apocalypse because they boost valuations and secure regulatory capture that amounts to permission to self-regulate.

The consequence is not merely technological disruption but a deep cultural and political rupture: erosion of authentic language and memory, amplification of racism and misogyny by opaque models, and fusion of corporations with state security to deploy pervasive surveillance and autonomous weapons. Framed as a geopolitical tool against China and a route to monopolize land, water and energy, AI becomes a vehicle for further extraction and control. Roy insists this trajectory risks mass social disintegration and a new, authoritarian capitalism that will manage knowledge, bodies and societies rather than serve them.