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Automation for the artisanal economy: enhancing the economic and environmental sustainability of crafting professions with human–machine collaboration

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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.

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Notes

  1. Wendling (2009) summarizes Marx’s view as follows: “Capitalist production marks a necessary transitional phase and is itself productive of the material wealth that will bring about its dissolution. After this dissolution, workers need not to smash but to own machines, for in doing so they reclaim the accumulated wealth of their class”.

  2. For example, UX designers often see themselves as artisans, with creative skills and visions that are capable of producing unique, one-of-a-kind GUIs, websites and platforms. The fact that we now see UX designers complaining about the “McDonaldization” of their work (Kiess 2019) suggests they too are on a path similar to the fate befalling other artisans; hopefully similar solutions could be applied to their case.

  3. Jefferson’s notorious failure to include race and gender in his formulations also parallels some dilemmas of today’s makerspace and open source inclusion problem, where the rhetoric of “open to all” does not match the demographics of participants (Lewis 2015; Fox et al. 2015).

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the National Science Foundation Grants DRL-1640014 and DGE-0947980 for support of this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Information, University of Michigan, 4389 North Quad, 105 S. State St., Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1285, USA

    Ron Eglash

  2. UM School of Information, Ann Arbor, USA

    Lionel Robert & Kwame Porter Robinson

  3. UM School of Art and Design, Ann Arbor, USA

    Audrey Bennett

  4. Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education, Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA

    Michael Lachney

  5. Department of Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer, Troy, USA

    William Babbitt

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Eglash, R., Robert, L., Bennett, A. et al. Automation for the artisanal economy: enhancing the economic and environmental sustainability of crafting professions with human–machine collaboration. AI & Soc 35, 595–609 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-019-00915-w

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