Automation for the artisanal economy: enhancing the economic and environmental sustainability of crafting professions wi
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Automation for the artisanal economy: enhancing the economic and environmental sustainability of crafting professions with human–machine collaboration Ron Eglash1 · Lionel Robert2 · Audrey Bennett3 · Kwame Porter Robinson2 · Michael Lachney4 · William Babbitt5 Received: 24 June 2019 / Accepted: 8 August 2019 © Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to eliminate millions of jobs, from finance to truck driving. But artisanal products (e.g., handmade textiles) are valued precisely because of their human origins, and thus have some inherent “immunity” from AI job loss. At the same time, artisanal labor, combined with technology, could potentially help to democratize the economy, allowing independent, small-scale businesses to flourish. Could AI, robotics and related automation technologies enhance the economic viability and environmental sustainability of these beloved crafting professions, perhaps even expanding their niche to replace some job loss in other sectors? In this paper, we compare the problems created by the current mass production economy and potential solutions from an artisanal economy. In doing so, the paper details the possibilities of utilizing AI to support hybrid forms of human–machine production at the microscale; localized and sustainable value chains at the mesoscale; and networks of these localized and sustainable producers at the macroscale. In short, a wide range of automation technologies are potentially available for facilitating and empowering an artisanal economy. Ultimately, it is our hope that this paper will facilitate a discussion on a future vision for more “generative” economic forms in which labor value, ecological value and social value can circulate without extraction or alienation. Keywords Human–machine collaboration · Artisanal economy · Generative justice · Industrial symbiosis · Ethnocomputing
1 Introduction 1.1 Overview Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to eliminate millions of jobs, from finance to truck driving. But artisanal products—handmade textiles, furnishings, adornments, foods,
and so on—are valued precisely because of their human origins, and thus have some inherent “immunity” from AI job loss. Just as importantly, while many of the jobs AI can (and should) replace are dull or dangerous, artisanal labor is at the other end of the spectrum: one of the most satisfying occupations possible (Luckman 2015; Sennett 2008). Artisanal labor, combined with technology, could potentially help to
* Ron Eglash [email protected]
1
School of Information, University of Michigan, 4389 North Quad, 105 S. State St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109‑1285, USA
Lionel Robert [email protected]
2
UM School of Information, Ann Arbor, USA
3
UM School of Art and Design, Ann Arbor, USA
4
Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education, Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA
5
Department of Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer, Troy, USA
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