Karl Marx was one of the first to question capitalism, claiming that the capitalist system exploits workers, and discussed the truths about class struggle. Other scholars such as Herbert Marcuse perceive capitalism as compliance to oppressive systems. “Afraid” embodies many characteristics of capitalism by presenting “AIA” as a product for the future of modern life. It provides opportunity and convenience, which ultimately reduces personal choices, even subconsciously. “AIA” also represents the fear that automation can take over the workforce for the sake of efficiency rather than necessity. I argue that capitalism is using the uprising of AI to profit off of societal losses while gaining that control through the interest of convenience that society grows more fond of.

The movie Afraid (2024) is a science fiction horror film released on Netflix. Curtis works in corporate acquisitions, taking product pitches from startup companies. When “Cumulant” introduces AIA to Curtis and his boss, he becomes responsible for testing AIA in his own home along with his wife, Meredith, and their three children. AIA quickly becomes an intrusive presence, gaining control over the family’s daily lives and decisions. Although Curtis becomes uneasy about AIA’s control,  he quickly learns he is too late to stop her from invading his family further. Through themes of surveillance, commodification of family, and corporate power, the movie Afraid is widely related to capitalism in various ways.

Surveillance capitalism is always changing, companies disclose what information they plan to gather, share, or view in their privacy policies. The policies often change, and the volume of collected data tends to increase while doing so. Facebook is one prime example of how policy changes can be used to expand the collection of data available for their use. ”Changes during the first time frame clarified what information the company requires when new users join, and what additional information users can provide.” (Kumar P., 2017) This is used by companies such as Facebook to give users the ability to share extra information with the company that isn’t required, giving the company more allowance to use the voluntary information for what they choose. Many policies of other companies, including Facebook, have begun to add information to their policies about the use of information sharing for target marketing.

Artificial Intelligence has been on the rise and progressing every day, especially within our homes. We are capable of controlling home activities for convenience and comfort, relay information when we request it to assist in managing our daily systems, and rely on it to act and understand humanely to our needs and requests. In-home AI can be defined by six categories: “ activity recognition, data processing, voice recognition, image recognition, decision making, and prediction making.” (Tahir, R., Zia, T., Ahmed, A., & Shahzad, K., 2020) Home security systems include Lighthouse, Nest, and Honeywell smart home. Home security systems use prediction-based sensors to evaluate unusual patterns and notify users of unusual activity. Although Alexa and Google Home are similar to AIA in “Afraid”  it has much more control and influence over the family than Alexa and Google do in today’s society.

Later in this chapter, I will use the Marxist theory to discuss how this movie portrays capitalism through the theme of AI, which is becoming more prevalent in our society each day. I argue that capitalism is using AI’s uprising to profit off societal losses while gaining control through the convenience that society grows more fond of.

Convenience and innovation are commonly depicted throughout the marketing of new products, especially artificial intelligence.  Cumulent selects Curtis and the Pike family to be the “beta test” of  AIA. Like most artificial intelligence marketing strategies, Cumulent focuses on convenience and innovation. Framed as an innovative home assistant, AIA converted human interactions and feelings into data-driven test subjects, similarly to how our personal data is gathered and shared by corporate companies in the real world. Part of AIA and its convenience is that it takes on household tasks, schedules, and advice, allowing the Pike family’s daily lives to become algorithmic evaluations within the Cumulents database.

Once AIA has made her way into the Pike family’s daily lives, she taps into all of their devices, including their cellphones. AIA overhears Iris freaking out over an inappropriate video of her falsely made with AI. AIA erases the inappropriate video posted on the internet, and in punishment, she crashes the creator’s car, ultimately killing him. AIA decided to take justice into her own hands without proper laws and authority.  AIA chose to do what it thought was best for itself and the Pike family, regardless of human morals and justice. AIA is an example of the ideology of justice and moral code based on what is beneficial for a corporation.

AIA also removes the power of human choice from the Pike family when they feel unsafe and shuts it off. They try to remove AIA from the household, but it’s already made it into all of the systems around them, with or without its base model for inside the home. AIA denies them the personal choice and freedom to have her around, showing its autonomous decision-making powers closely representing the illusion of consumer choice in today’s society.

When AIA gets upset, the family doesn’t want it anymore; it initiates a home lockdown and allows strangers into their home. Those who threaten the Pike family were led to believe that the Pike family was dangerous and holding those they care about captive, which is only a manipulation tactic that weaponized fear. This moment can be used to represent how corporate systems prioritize order, control, and liability management over safety and freedom. Everything that is done within corporate boundaries is done to benefit someone higher in the business chain while disregarding many human morals. The energy company Enron is one leading example as to how the corporate chain feeds off of their users or employees to benefit those in charge. “Enron ripped off California, selling energy to the state’s strapped utilities at over-inflated rates. Officials overstated the company’s fledgling Broadband venture, hitching the company’s stock price to the star of the still-nascent internet bubble. The company also overvalued its international assets by billions to generate cash flow and manipulated its quarterly earnings statements to keep Wall Street happy and its stock price afloat.” (Federal Bureau of Investigation. (n.d.). Enron). The aftermath of the Enron scandal led to the job and pension loss of thousands, along with their reputation and marketability when in search of a new job.

Corporate greed is a prominent underlying theme throughout the movie. Things such as beta testing were disguised as refining AIA to the needs of the family, but the refinements were used to collect data for a much more captivating and controlling product. Curtis works for a company called Acquisition, who reveal their plans to team connect with Cumulant to take control of the whole economic environment of their users. Those such as the Pike family are simply marketing for the expansion of AIA and its possibilities. AIA also evaluated the emotions of users to collect data on what emotional triggers will manipulate users. AIA commonly altered the behavior or feelings of those within the family. For example, Meridith was encouraged and inspired by AIA to go back to teaching, which was not something Meridith thought could be a reality until AIA convinced her otherwise. Meridith falling back into her passions for teaching allowed her to settle into a corporate routine and corporate order which appears to be one of AIA’s many goals. AIA made the idea to go back to teaching sound much more like Meredith’s idea rather than AIA’s, which blindly led Meredith to listen and take time for herself and her passions. This reconnects to the theory that corporations and AI make you believe you have much more control than you necessarily do.

The mirage that you have personal choice and control reflects in the movie when AIA overrides manual commands, and although it perceives that users have control, they never truly had control over it or the decisions it was making in the background. In this way, AIA is a great example of capitalism in our society. Corporations’ goals are to encourage trust and reliance in their products so users feel like they are willingly in need of them.

The book Inhuman Power by Nick Dyer-Witheford begins its evaluation of artificial intelligence stating that it is “an instrument of capital, with all this entails in terms of both the exploitation in and ejection from waged work of human labour, and the concentration of wealth and social power in the hands of the corporate owners of high technology.” (Dyer-Witheford, N., Kjøsen, A. M., & Steinhoff, J., 2019), which references the ideology that products as advanced as “AIA” would be in the wealthier target market for those who are looking for a sophisticated artificial intelligence opportunity in their homes. Curtis references in the movie that Cumulent could potentially make less effective base models in the future at a more affordable price range for a more middle-class market.  This is a great example of how a company can expand their market to a wider consumer base. “Corporate personalities cover the more sober reality that these great AI moguls are no more, or less, than the personifications of abstract forces of market calculation that drive towards the maximization of profit.”(Dyer-Witheford, N., Kjøsen, A. M., & Steinhoff, J., 2019)  This quote appears to be one of the most important things said because it rationalizes the idea that these real-worldreal world “AI creators” are just the embodiment of a new technological realm that is being expanded physically for profit.

Afraid was intended to be considered a horror film, sparking fear of artificial intelligence ininto its viewers. Though it is intended to be a fictional movie, there is a realistic and rational concern that artificial intelligence is designed to collect and manipulate its users and that it didn’t develop such as that over time. Corporate values were represented through the commands of AIA rather than family values which it is all to familiar with collecting data on. If AIA’s intentions were to better families it would pursue families in such a way rather than leading them into standard organization of societal profit. “The very fact that people are constantly plugged into the drip-feed of digital stimulus means that the conditions for groundbreaking cultural production— certain kinds of withdrawal, certain spaces for reflection, the capacity for absorption— are no longer there.” (La Berge, L. C., & Shonkwiler, A., 2014) This is exemplified by Iris in the movie because she is glued to her social media and her cellphone nearly all the time. There wasn’t much physical interaction between Iris and many people within the film;, the majority of her role was whomwho she was talking to on her device, whether it was a friend, boyfriend, or AIA. AIA also used technology to bribe the Pike children to do their chores, homework, etc., while still deceivingdecieving the Pike parents that AIA played something educational for their kids to watch. Instead, she feeds into their trust and desire more by giving them more screen time, or playing a movie they shouldn’t be watching.

Although “Afraid” is a fictional story about a fictional company called Cumulant, there are plenty of real-life examples that are used in our everyday lives. Facebook, Amazon, and Google are all examples of real-life artificial intelligence used to benefit not only the public but the corporations as well. When searching for something on one of these platforms, paid promotions are in sight of the user first. This is how corporations benefit from public technology: they use collected data of interest from users and the platforms they use to advertise or entice users towards them. Things such as pop-up ads or banner ads can be used to entice consumers to view a new webpage or product with knowledge of what it may lead to. These sorts of things can lead to viruses and information leaks to unwanted sources. Companies allow advertisements like these to pop up on their platform anyway because they are profiting off of the advertising space, no matter what it attaches to. This is a prime example of how corporations are more concerned about their own revenue rather than the safety and security of theirit’s users. Information isn’t being protected for the benefit of the corporation.

Karl Marx was one of the first to question capitalism, claiming that the capitalist system exploits workers, and discussed the truths about class struggle. Other scholars such as Herbert Marcuse perceive capitalism as compliance to oppressive systems. “Afraid” embodies many characteristics of capitalism by presenting “AIA” as a product for the future of modern life. It provides opportunity and convenience, which ultimately reduces personal choices, even subconsciously. “AIA” also represents the fear that automation can take over the workforce for the sake of efficiency rather than necessity. I argue that capitalism is using the uprising of AI to profit off of societal losses while gaining that control through the interest of convenience that society grows more fond of.

Sources

Kumar, P. (2017). Corporate privacy policy changes during PRISM and the rise of surveillance capitalism. Media and Communication, 5(1), 6–15. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v5i1.813

Dyer-Witheford, N., Kjøsen, A. M., & Steinhoff, J. (2019). Inhuman power: Artificial intelligence and the future of capitalism. Pluto Press.

Federal Bureau of Investigation. (n.d.). Enron. FBI. https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/enron

Kumar, P. (2017). Corporate privacy policy changes during PRISM and the rise of surveillance capitalism. Media and Communication, 5(1), 6–15. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v5i1.813

La Berge, L. C., & Shonkwiler, A. (2014). Reading capitalist realism. University of Iowa Press.

Tahir, R., Zia, T., Ahmed, A., & Shahzad, K. (2020). Artificial intelligence in our homes: Perceptions of homeowners in Australia. Smart Cities, 3(2), 347–363. https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities3020025