The idea that autonomous, self-acting, artificially intelligent robots - or mere computer networks - could wipe out mankind within 10 years, as a couple of defectors from Anthropic, or Sam Altman the boss of Open AI, propose - well, this is really big-splash news- making! And that's (almost) all it is!

    But it serves a purpose. The big tech companies which are racing against each other to build a "super- intelligent machine" are in competition for immense profits. Slowing down the race, or even sabotaging it, is certainly in their interests. So threatening this "nuclear option" makes sense in their narrow Al hyper- world.

    They are running a real risk, though - to their own pockets and indeed the world economy: a financial wipe-out, given the current fuelling of the Al bubble on the stock exchange. It's far bigger than the Dotcom bubble which burst in 2000, crashing the markets and opening another era of global crisis...

    Anyway, Al is already a killer: it's routinely in use in warfare in Ukraine. Drones can fly autonomously and choose targets to blow up. The documentary, "NAZA" made by two Israelis, depicts the use of an Al mapping tool by the Israeli army in Gaza. Using phone signals, soldiers identified precisely where bombs would fall and on whom: they even knew the names and ages of the kids they killed.

    However, in and of itself, there's nothing to fear from Al. The question is, what is it used for and who possesses and controls it? "Who rules?" over society makes all the difference. Intelligence, whether artificial or real, can be used in our interests, or against them.

    As long as the capitalist class holds the levers of production; as long as the so-called democratic state promotes its interests against our class, the regulations which are meant to "protect humankind" will be skewed to protect capitalists and capitalism. We know very well from our daily experience at work that profits come before safety and before health, unless we fight to protect ourselves!

    What's more, Al has already proven of great benefit: it speeds up research and the development of life-saving drugs and vaccines; it carries out multiple administrative tasks; does calculations at lightning speed and can certainly replace workers in tasks which do not require our unique human judgement, imagination and emotion...

    In fact advanced Al shared among everyone is the ideal "tool" for a society based on production for need, rather than profit! So if Al does progress to super- intelligence, it would undoubtedly advocate international socialism and communism. Maybe that's what the tech pundits are so afraid of!

One in three employers has cut the number of jobs available to new-starts - school-leavers and workers without qualifications - in the past year.

    Little wonder therefore, that there are currently a million 16 to 24 year-olds not in education, employment or training!

    Former Blairite Minister, Alan Milburn was asked to look at the "NEET" problem and published an interim report in May, which found its "cause" inside the heads of these jobless youngsters!

    Yup: "A rising tide of mental ill-health, anxiety, depression [andl neurodiversity is a central driver of economic inactivity among young people" So, it's not the fact that there are no decent jobs out there? This "interim answer" is - to put it politely - "bollocks"!

    The government's response is to announce a £1bn "training allowance" for school leavers so that they'll stay in education. And companies are to be given £3,000 for every NEET they employ for 6 months - with no requirement to keep them afterwards! It may tackle the statistics, but certainly won't tackle the problem!

    This "solution" is no different from the host of schemes from YOP to YTS, to Kickstart, which, ever since the de-industrialisation of the British economy in the 1970s, has been a panacea offered by every government - even Thatcher's - to appear to do something about the lack of real jobs in today's capitalist economy. They jump to cover the bosses' backs and what's more, give them a hand-out at taxpayers' expense.

    The CEO of the British Retail Consortium claims that his organisation is "coming to the rescue", by providing... unpaid job placements at the behest of Andy Burnham! Free labour! So this month, Tesco, Asda, M&S, Amazon, Boots, JD Sports, John Lewis, among others, will offer up to 4 weeks of unpaid work "experience" for young workers, but with no guarantee of a job thereafter.

    In the meantime the job-slashing continues. Just as Chancellor Healey was talking up plans for "growth" last week, Jaguar Land Rover announced 4,000 job cuts. Another 3,800 are to be cut at Whitbread's, 2,000 at the BBC, hundreds at Ladbrokes, the Mirror and Express... etc...

    The bosses expect the workers to pay for the crisis in their rotten, ever-more exploitative system. We cannot and will not. It's time to put our (collective!) foot down!