“So sure: Protocols over platforms. Then we have to actually do the inelegant, un-heroic, expensive work of rebuilding the essential structures of human civilization on top of the protocols, because it turns out we just have the one world, online or off, no way out.” — @kissane, https://www.wrecka.ge/bad-shape/
“I think we should shed the idea that [‘artificial intelligence’] is a technological artifact with political features and recognize it as a political artifact through and through. AI is an ideological project to shift authority and autonomy away from individuals, towards centralized structures of power.”
This is, of course, something that workers across the labor movement have been *keenly* aware of since day one. (It’s even part of my book’s closing argument!) I just really loved the framing here, which I thought was VERY sharp.
Always remember that advances in “artificial intelligence” are driven directly by exploited human labor: specifically, by underpaid contractors working under tremendous precarity, often while reviewing horribly traumatizing content:
Someone once gushed to me about the remarkable new careers these technologies will create. I responded by saying “AI” has created a tremendous number of jobs over the last decade, and that “remarkable” is the last fucking word I’d use to describe them.
If you’re looking for a way to support the union? They’ve established a virtual picket line, and are asking the rest of us to not cross it:
“The striking employees will picket in front of the newspaper’s Times Square office from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily and are asking readers to honor the Tech Guild’s digital picket line by not accessing Times games or cooking apps.”
Designer. Started that responsive design thing. Writes a bit, or tries to. Spends a normal amount of time thinking about The Locked Tomb series.A perfectly normal amount of time.My latest book is YOU DESERVE A TECH UNION! (You can purchase it from my bio, or just about anywhere books are sold!)