🚨MUST READ - TikTok content moderators in Türkiye tell @tbij.bsky.social and @the-independent.com about abusive, traumatic conditions they face — and say their employer #Telus fired them after forming a union. www.independent.co.uk/tech/tiktok-...

Artists’ rights are thrown under the bus in ‘the great AI race’. The next step of tech vying for an anthropomorphic ‘right to learn’ is the parroting the jingoistic language of America first (artists last.) @bcmerchant.bsky.social’s great newsletter this week = 💎 open.substack.com/pub/bloodint...

📣📣: New job! I started as a policy advisor for the Left group at the 🇪🇺 Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL). I’ll be working with the stellar Chair Li Andersson and the Left team on familiar things: algorithmic management, workers’ rights, social dialogue, skills. Stoked! ✨

Mitä ennakoitua tehokkaammat tekoälymallit mahdollisesti tarkoittavat Suomelle? Sanna Vellava ja Johannes Mikkonen pohtivat Repair-blogissa onko DeepSeek murtuma suomalaisten paikkakuntien tulevaisuusvisioissa. Lue alta 👇 www.repair-research.fi/blogi/onko-d...

queen did not mince a single word www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

As someone who has reported on AI for 7 years and covered China tech as well, I think the biggest lesson to be drawn from DeepSeek is the huge cracks it illustrates with the current dominant paradigm of AI development. A long thread. 1/

"China has not reined in its tech sector out of any belief in democracy, but rather through a seeming understanding that the new forces of wealth, data, intelligence, information, commerce, and communications can hijack a country’s political system and lead it into dangerously uncharted territory."

I am collecting examples of the most thoughtful writing about generative AI published in 2024. What’s yours? They can be insightful for commentary, smart critique, or just because it shifted the conversation. I’ll post some of mine below as I go through them. #criticalAI

📣Just published! A new D&S primer by Aiha Nguyen & Alexandra Mateescu pushes against hype to show what it will really take to understand how AI impacts work — including examining how work is organized, how industries are structured, and whose and what work is valued. datasociety.net/library/gene...

📢NEW: 'Open' AI systems aren't open. The vague term, combined w frothy AI hype is (mis)shaping policy & practice, assuming 'open source' AI democratizes access & addresses power concentration. It doesn't. @smw.bsky.social, @davidthewid.bsky.social & I correct the record👇 nature.com/articles/s41...

“But should a researcher of the digital society in fact be a willing & witting broker, precisely because of the influence the position affords? Tech developers proudly tell us that their gadgets actively shape the digital society. Shouldn’t a researcher aim to do that too?” 🎯 @tuukka.bsky.social

Tein REPAIR-hankkeeseen uuden blogikirjoituksen jossa huomioin kuinka syrjivät algoritmit nakertavat yhteiskunnan luottamusta, olisko aika siirtyä kepistä tulemiseen? www.repair-research.fi/blogi/syrjiv...

Cool project here from @jwyg.bsky.social troubling AI: a call for screenshots 📸 troubling-ai.glitch.me

I need this as a t-shirt.

All that shines is not #AI: Regulating #algorithms at work 🎥 A webinar on the implications of algorithmic management systems in the workplace, exploring their potential to deepen hierarchies or foster fairer work environments depending on regulatory frameworks. Watch here: youtu.be/qKSby6PhU40?...

Fyi folks here is a postdoc/PhD position opening at my lab, @DHLabBasel, in Basel. jobs.unibas.ch/offene-stell...

Wow ok did not see that going into a take on zoning, rent, the material conditions of a city 🫰

Sweden’s example, combined with the recent case from Denmark clearly shows how even Nordics are not exceptional in public sector ADM & algorithmic system related risks. Sincerely hope for clearer European Commission guidance and enforcement on social scoring next year under the AI Act.

Incredibly excited: In/Convenience: Inhabiting the Logistical Surround is now out!!! 4 years in the making, co-edited by @joshua-neves.bsky.social and me, this OA volume is full of chapters that will make you rethink the oft-used word. Please read & circulate! networkcultures.org/blog/publica...

“Infrastructure becomes visible when it breaks down” version of the week: undersea internet cables and their sabotage in the Baltic. A good excuse to up one of my absolute fave infra journalistic pieces from this year – a real snack of a read www.theverge.com/c/24070570/i...

For the December issue of The New Republic, I reviewed AI SNAKE OIL. For those learning about AI, it offers a lot: exegesis of technical details, a taxonomy to sift through different algorithmic systems, and a depoliticized history that taints the book’s analysis. newrepublic.com/article/1883...

We're bringing together scholars, practitioners, artists, and activists to reflect, critique, and imagine the manifold ways that digital, physical, and social infrastructures are built, broken, reconstructed, and mythologized. Learn more and apply by January 17, 2025! datasociety.net/announcement...

🌍📅Hello folks, the program for our workshop "(Un)Artificial Intelligence: Workers Behind the Machine" is now live! Join us on 21 Nov. 2024, 2:30 pm CET, at the European Parliament (or watch the livestream). diplab.eu/diplab-conne...

New preprint co-authored with James Steinhoff and Alessandro Delfanti: "Remote Robotics, or the Digital Re-Embodiment of Labour," forthcoming in Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation. We explore embodiment in remotely operated logistics robots. tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/18...

Quote this & tell: 1) a project you are working on & 2) an odd idea/theory you aren't working on but keep thinking about 1) Grassroots practices of resistance to algorithmic management at work (creating illegibility, shadow practices, the sharing of these repertoires) 2) Glitches as a form of joy

High quality reading list from Alina Utrata: "The Anti-Dystopians’ Guide for Students Studying Tech & Politics" alinautrata.substack.com/p/the-anti-d...

A starter pack of those who are studying the power of algorithms at work, the consequences of algorithmic management on work and workers, and/or what we do about it. Please share or suggest and I will add; I will also keep an eye out as more people migrate to Bluesky! go.bsky.app/Aag5R43

Uups already 3 weeks ago but… Had a hoot talking about our new report on the messy realities of algorithmic management from a worker perspective at the EU Economic and Social committee. Pan-Nordic policy report and Finnish case studies here, check them out feps-europe.eu/publication/...

I have one more starter pack in me: critical tech-art. Thing is: a lot of women in this space aren’t on Blue Sky and the gender balance here is no good. Really want to change that. Suggestions for critical women artists in tech (with bsky accounts!) please? go.bsky.app/EkpVQwY

Rainy Sunday, waiting for the proper spooky season 🧟 “In the nineteenth century, a ruin was a landscape for gothic horror. Today, monsters pervade infrastructure. With sprawling limbs and hulking frames, towering oil platforms, writhing wires, and bottomless mines are omens of contemporary dread”

I’ve come to abandon the use case for LLMs to summarize text because the summaries usually miss vital parts and are disappointing when I look closer. Australian government now has proof this is the case. Another proof that LLMs have more limitations we need to understand.

Heyoo, come hear me and some smart folks in person/online on Sept 17th talk about algorithmic management at “standard” workplaces! I’m presenting our soon published report on what AM, surveillance & datafication look like in Finland atm + what unions could do about it feps-europe.eu/event/how-al...

PhD positions available @helsinkiuni! An unique chance to create your own project and get a fully funded 3-year position. If you are interested in digital welfare states, automation and AI in social security and social services, contact me. Application by April 2 fcai.fi/doctoral-pro...

Doused the hype of “an AI candidate” in the “elections” in Belarus in comments for the Finnish public broadcaster YLE: a fun gimmick in this case to underline lack of democracy, but overall for elections.. let’s just not. No thanks to deepfakes, AI robocalls and AI generated election spam.

So, so sad. This leaves an estimated 40 mil precarious gig workers in the EU with a patchwork of regulation and misses a chance to put clear, shared rules on both false classification as self-employed and egregious use of algorithmic management. Not the finest hour of the EU.

Who is “the public” when it comes to “public engagement in AI”? journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Okay yes wow yet another hype-shift, but also: why do tech journalists not call out Meta’s openwashing? Llama2 has open aspects but IS NOT open source by any means. And highly doubt any “”AGI”” from Meta would be either, despite the posturing.

“Political leaders cannot again buy the myth—peddled by self-interested tech leaders and investors—that supporting innovation requires suspending government’s regulatory duties.” Good reminder for policymakers to keep a clear head: regulation already exists and democratic accountability is key.

Aiemmassa ketjussa esittelin lukuja kanteesta, jossa Etelä-Afrikka syyttää Israelia palestiinalaisten kansanmurhasta Gazassa. Tässä ketjussa nostan kanteesta kohtia, joissa kuvataan israelilaisten päättäjien karmaisevia lausuntoja. 1/15

CFP is open for Nordic Sociological Association Conference. Send an abstract to our panel "Behind the scenes of digital public services". www.nsa2024.se What takes place behind implementing digitalised services and systems: hidden labour, design patterns, political visions...

Tired of how abstract terms are thrown around in the proliferating AI ethics discussion?Join in this Friday live in Helsinki or online to hear Oxford Internet Institute’s Prof Brent Mittelstadt’s guest lecture on how AI ethics can be translated to practice. 🤖 ✨ demoshelsinki.fi/2023/12/04/o...

I wrote a blog post about the difficulties of doing ethics when matters-of-fact are elusive. It concerns a certain governmental innovation called the AuroraAI Network: an ambitous project to reform the welfare state in Finland using AI and digital twin technology. Let me know what you think! #STS

Such heartwarming news to have been chosen on the Future Leaders 35 under 35 list on global governance, challenges of emerging tech and regulation by Barcelona Center for International Affairs and Santander. ✨ Really honored to be amongst these brilliant folks, do check out our 2min statements!

Looking for a postdoc researcher interested in technology&society! New 3.5y research project starting in January and we’re looking for someone to join us in exploring sociotechnical contexts of robots and push for just tech. Application DL Nov 26 #STS #polisci demoshelsinki.fi/2023/11/13/w...

Onko Apotti-jännitteiden keskeinen syy työn dataistuminen? Lääkärin työ aiemmin laajan harkintavallan alla, nyt määrämuotoisen tiedon tuottaminen ja jäykkä käyttökokemus turhauttaa – ja tuottaa käyttökelvotonta dataa. Syökö tämä koko järjestelmän pointin? www.repair-research.fi/blogi/apotti...

Kiinnostava junioripesti poliittisen mielikuvituksen tutkijalle! ats.talentadore.com/apply/projek...