Labor Tech Research Network

We are at 4S 2026, the annual meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science. If you are around, please take a look at our LaborTech @ 4S Schedule published on our website with specifically sessions by our members labortechresearchnetwork.org/4s-2026

Congratuations to our member Azer Kilic, who published "Professional translators’ imaginaries of the future of work amid AI advances: articulating fears, hopes, and desires within narratives of capitalism" in @jcultecon.bsky.social. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Such #4S2026 FOMO this week, but appreciative of @labortechresearchnetwork.org for pulling together this list of panels that I can imagine from afar! labortechresearchnetwork.org/4s-2026

Join us for a virtual event to commemorate the Lampedusa shipwreck tragedy and discuss the human consequences of the growing use of surveillance, data and AI in migration control. Register here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

In @dissentmag.bsky.social, D&S Policy Director @brianjchen.bsky.social explores the power and limits of the data center opposition, and what it might take to change the structure of AI production for the public’s benefit. dissentmagazine.org/article/ai-d...

While we all process this, Turkopticon would like to remind everyone, we are still here and we will go where our workers go. Stay tuned as we figure out where some of our favorite requesters are heading.

UPCOMING EVENT: Join us on Wednesday, September 23 at 4:00 - 5:30 PM ET for Feeling the Future: Asian/Americanist Takes on Techno-Empire, Chinamaxxing, & the “American Century of Humiliation." 🎤 Featuring Brian J. Chen, Julie Chu, Jasmine Ehrhardt, & Paul Kim in conversation with Lisa Nakamura.

Webinar @etui.bsky.social: "Unpaid labour across Europe: how much work goes unpaid and what does it tell us about inequality and job quality?" 18 September 2026, 11:00 - 13:00 CEST, Zoom pw1kd0vm.r.eu-central-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...

PhD candidates/new grads: Postdoc opportunity with me focused on political economy and tech. See details here: academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/32502

"Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia combined use 30+ intermediary companies for data work, ranging from outsourcing companies to crowdwork platforms...and **influence working conditions** thru pricing pressures, tight deadlines & by shifting contracts between vendors" Powerful thread 👇🏼

Our member Julián Posada was recently on Democracy Now.

Really looking forward to this conversation. I love when I get a chance to talk across disciplines to groups of curious and smart people.

From the absolute legend Lilly Irani⬇️ And as @somoamsterdam.bsky.social noted, confirmed by our research at TechEquity, Amazon operates as: customer, investor and cloud provider of data work services. “This increases its responsibility towards AI supply chain workers.” www.somo.nl/big-tech-set...

Mechanical Turk may be shutting down, but AI will always depend on data workers whose knowledge trains and tunes models. AI runs on extracted cultural skills and knowledge, and culture is always changing. Less the end of an era, but the end of an early prototype.

this is going to be SUCH a great event!! come and learn from local journalists about how tech/AI is shaping their work

More from me... and WHY UNIONS ARE AMAZING! karenattiah.substack.com/p/the-washin...

"Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the US Census" comes out in one month! Please pre-order the book if you can (or ask your library for a copy). You can choose French or English, audio, e-book, or hardcover.

I'm very excited to see the launch of @yangtzeriverr.bsky.social's interactive project on mapping the data workers who power the different data labeling platforms for AI. www.ai-materiality-map.org/data-workers See cntr.brown.edu/news/2026-08... for more on the project (and the series!)

New article on how Walmart retail workers are impacted by AI that cites @united4respect.bsky.social research: "Employees often have to spend time training the software, supplying the context and judgment AI agents lack about their jobs" www.businessinsider.com/walmart-work...

🚨Aug 19 at 1pm ET 🚨

🔇 🔇 🔇 My book, Deep Unlearning, is now available for preorders! I don't know how people write so many books because this one took a lot out of me. It turns out, I had a lot to say 😂, with editors cutting out 50k of my words 🫣 ✴️ You can now preorder it at www.simonandschuster.com/books/Deep-U....

Texas Tech is using AI to seek out content on sexual orientation & gender identity. Professors describe the effort as a dystopian academic nightmare. One professor worried about her core course, Holocaust in Literature, because it mentions that gay & bisexual men were also targets of the Nazis...

Pre-order and read this book! Add this to your reading lists and book clubs!

EXCLUSIVE: 404 Media placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books. @evystadium.bsky.social has more. Investigation by @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social here: www.404media.co/we-tracked-a...

This article is a joint publication of @workdaymagazine.bsky.social and @inthesetimes.com. You can see the Workday Magazine version here.

Upcoming PERN Salon Event with Dr Mona Sloane @monasloane.bsky.social. Register Here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/the-pern-salon-predicted-how-ai-is-restructuring-social-life-with-mona-s-tickets-1994283249885

livestream video has been resistant to this sort of mining until now - too much, too big, too ephemeral, too contextual, and no software to do it relatively cheaply until now

Job position at the University of Toronto. Assistant Professor (Teaching Stream), Media Studies jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...

Without game developers, there are no video games. Join us across nine cities next Tuesday, August 18th, as we rally for the rights of workers in the games industry. All allies welcome - when we fight boss battles together, WE WIN! ✊ Details: actionnetwork.org/event_campai...

The whole series is great and I especially find the fifth post in the series insightful, thinking about the how we, as labour/tech researchers, might relate to workers in our research. Link below 👇

AI is deepening misgivings about the most accessible form of higher education, just as many students are struggling with the academic aftermath of the pandemic and questioning whether they have the skills to succeed in college. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/10/u...