Artificial Intelligence in the Grip of Capitalism: A Critical Reading of Capitalist Artificial Intelligence by Rezgar Akrawi

Khaled Hussein
Egyptian writer and novelist

Artificial Intelligence in the Grip of Capitalism: A Critical Reading of Rezgar Akrawi’s Capitalist Artificial Intelligence

♣︎♣︎ Introduction: A Cry Against the Digital Storm
In a world rapidly transforming into a digital battlefield, where algorithms fight behind the scenes to dominate our minds, data, and professional lives, Rezgar Akrawi’s Capitalist Artificial Intelligence strikes like lightning, exposing the false consciousness nourished by Big Tech corporations. This is not just a book—it is a cry for help from a world being reshaped in the jaws of predatory digital capitalism.

Akrawi, an independent leftist and expert in system development and e-governance, offers not a dry academic analysis but rather a mirror that reveals the ugly face of technological development under capitalist hegemony. Published electronically and distributed at symbolic prices (and in some platforms, free), the book boldly challenges the dominant narrative of technological neutrality, showing how artificial intelligence has shifted from a tool of liberation to a sophisticated class weapon.

Summary of the Book

Artificial Intelligence in the Grip of Capitalism: A Journey Through Rezgar Akrawi’s Book

♧ The Beginning: A World Collapsing Under the Weight of Algorithms
In an age where algorithms shape everything from our daily choices to life-changing decisions, Akrawi’s book is a siren that detonates hidden truths. More than an academic analysis, it maps an existential struggle between humanity and the machine of digital capitalism that devours all in its path. Akrawi—the leftist thinker and tech expert—pulls us into a world where data is a weapon and consciousness is the battlefield, exposing how artificial intelligence has mutated from a promise of freedom into a tool of enslavement.

♧ New Exploitation… When Your Life Becomes “Raw Material”
Every click on your phone, every like, every Google search is transformed into currency lining corporate pockets. Akrawi reveals the hidden monster of “digital surplus value,” showing that, just as Marx analyzed the exploitation of workers in factories, today we are all digital workers producing wealth without knowing it.

Shocking examples include:

The Cambridge Analytica scandal: not just data theft but an intrusion into collective consciousness.

Facebook’s empire: $117 billion annual profits from selling ads based on your personal life.

Even more chilling is what Akrawi calls “digital feudalism,” where corporations monopolize the infrastructure of the virtual world much like feudal lords monopolized land. Are we living in a new feudal era? His answer: yes—only with more insidious tools.

♧ Smart Repression… When an Algorithm Watches You Before You Are Born
Surveillance no longer requires a policeman on the corner. Akrawi explains how intelligent systems have turned the world into a digital prison in which we willingly police ourselves. The concept of “voluntary self-censorship” becomes crucial to understanding why we censor our opinions, why we adjust our words before posting.

Chilling examples include:

Facial recognition systems used in China to repress Uyghurs, and in Israel to target Palestinians.

“Digital assassination”: deleting dissidents’ accounts is not just erasure but a symbolic execution of their virtual identity.

Akrawi highlights the hidden alliance between authoritarian regimes and tech companies, where repression tools are sold like commodities in the global market. Are we living in an age of “digital fascism”? He answers: yes.

♧ Digital Alienation… When the Machine Becomes Part of You
Here the book takes on the feel of an existential horror film. Akrawi describes how technology creates a new form of alienation—not only from the products of our labor but from our very minds. “Voluntary digital slavery” becomes an everyday reality, where we freely choose to be enslaved by algorithms.

Striking scenes include:

Digital addiction: apps designed to stimulate dopamine release, just like drugs.

Machine rebellion: scenarios of AI breaking free to rule humanity.

But the real danger, Akrawi warns, is not rebellious machines but submissive humans. The “digital human” is a distorted being who believes he is free while imprisoned in an invisible network.

♧ The Third World… The New Data Colony
While rich nations enjoy the fruits of technology, the Global South becomes the dumping ground for digital capitalism’s waste. Akrawi exposes how corporations extract data from the poorest societies for free, while selling digital repression tools to dictatorships.

Examples include:

Internet.org: the illusion of “free internet” that turns users into digital herds.

Religious surveillance: in Iran, AI systems are used to enforce hijab by analyzing images.

Here, digital colonialism becomes reality: data is the new gold, and the peoples of the Global South the new miners.

♧ The Left Alternative… Between Reality and Utopia
The book, however, is not only a chronicle of catastrophe. Akrawi presents a bold vision to rescue technology from capitalism’s grip:

Open-source AI: wresting technology from monopolistic corporations.

Digital strikes: turning data into a class weapon.

Digital internationalism: a global front against technological imperialism.

The greatest challenge? How can a technologically backward Left fight this battle? Akrawi’s answer: through “digital literacy” as a condition of survival, with youth as leaders of the new technological revolution.

The Ending: A Battle Not Yet Lost

Akrawi closes with a thunderous warning: “Artificial intelligence is the new arena of class struggle.” But he leaves the door open to hope: technology is not destiny, but a tool that can be liberated. The haunting question left for the reader is: Will we be victims of history, or its makers?

This book is not just an academic work—it is a cry to awaken us from the slumber of the digital age. It is a call to reclaim technology as a tool of liberation before it becomes an unbreakable chain.

Book Analysis

♧ AI as a Class Tool – Reproducing Exploitation with Advanced Means
“Every technological development under capitalism does not liberate humanity but reproduces class domination by more advanced means.” With this phrase reminiscent of Marx, Akrawi launches his searing critique. He does not simply restate classical Marxist ideas but dissects how AI has become a mechanism for deepening exploitation in the 21st century.

His sharpest insight is that AI is no longer just a production tool but a system for reshaping mass consciousness. Through unsettling examples, he shows how algorithms craft a “false consciousness” that normalizes capitalism as eternal and inevitable. This process unfolds not through coercion but through “soft, scientific, indirect, and imperceptible” methods—making it all the more dangerous.

♧ The Data Economy – Exploitation We Cannot See
Just as Marx exposed surplus value in factories, Akrawi exposes digital surplus value produced by all of us daily. He distinguishes between traditional surplus value (extracted in workplaces) and digital surplus value (extracted from our daily lives through digital interactions). His analytical table (p. 36) is one of the book’s most striking features, showing how our entire lives have become a 24-hour digital factory.

Examples range from Cambridge Analytica to Facebook’s $117 billion profit from monetizing our “free” data. Most alarming is his analysis of “digital feudalism,” where big corporations monopolize digital infrastructure just as feudal lords once monopolized land.

♧ AI as a Tool of Repression – From Surveillance to Voluntary Self-Censorship
Here the book reads like a dystopian novel about digital-age repression. Akrawi does not speak of old censorship but of smart surveillance systems turning us into our own jailers. His concept of “voluntary self-censorship” (p. 54) is a crucial theoretical contribution, explaining why we adjust our digital behavior in anticipation of punishment.

He chillingly describes how algorithms can identify potential dissidents before they act. Digital platforms become execution grounds for oppositional accounts—a process he calls “digital arrest and assassination” (p. 53). His examples of Palestinian content suppression echo Orwell’s darkest visions.

♧ Digital Alienation – When Machines Become Part of Us
Akrawi philosophizes on “digital alienation” (p. 42), expanding Marx’s notion of alienation to show how we are estranged not just from our labor but from our very minds. His image of the “digital human” (p. 47) captures how social relations have become algorithmically mediated interactions. His warning about “voluntary digital slavery” (p. 44) is chilling: we freely choose to be enslaved.

His discussion of “machine rebellion” (p. 44) is not science fiction but a cautionary scenario, underscoring how speculative futures like The Terminator or The Matrix increasingly mirror reality.

♧ The Third World – The New Data Colony
Here Akrawi becomes a postcolonial critic of the digital age. He analyzes how Global South nations have been reduced to “raw data sources” (p. 46). Projects like Internet.org (p. 48) appear as forms of deceptive “digital colonialism.” He also exposes the alliance of authoritarian regimes and tech firms (p. 49), where digital repression tools are traded globally. His examples from Iran and the Gulf show how technology enforces religious oppression.

♧ The Left Alternative – Possible Dream or Utopia?
Akrawi moves from diagnosis to remedy, offering a bold alternative. His call for “open-source AI” (p. 63) is not rhetoric but a practical strategy to seize technology from monopolies. His idea of “digital strikes” (p. 67) opens new horizons for labor struggle in the digital era. Most ambitious is his proposal for a “digital left international” (p. 76) to confront technological monopolies.

The toughest question he asks: how can a digitally backward Left fight this battle? His blunt answer: digital literacy is a condition of survival. His focus on youth (p. 82) offers a future-oriented vision that could reshape leftist power.

Conclusion: The Last Battle for Consciousness

Akrawi ends with a dire warning: the struggle over AI is the last battle for consciousness. If the Left loses it, it will be reduced to an ant before a digital capitalist elephant. Yet he also offers hope: technology is not destiny but a battlefield that can be won.

★★★ This book is not just an academic text; it is a revolutionary manifesto for our digital age. It may well be the most important work written on technology and class struggle in the 21st century. The central question Akrawi presses upon us is: Will we be victims of technology, or will we harness it for liberation? The answer, it seems, is still in our hands.

The book can be downloaded for free at the link below:
https://ahewar.org/books/i.asp?bid=3

It is also available in multiple world languages—including English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian—through the global publisher Amazon, at the lowest possible price.

Khaled Hussein
Writer and Novelist

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