Allison Pugh
@allisonpugh.bsky.social
Care, Tech, Culture, Inequality. Check out The Last Human Job re the "scaling up" of humane work @PrincetonUPress. Johns Hopkins sociologist
My favorite part is where she mentions sociology's "obsession with inequality.". Isn't that like criticizing history for its obsession with the past? Sociology does lots of things well but one of the things it does best is decoding inequality, particularly useful in our second Gilded Age
Lisa Wade@lisawade.bsky.social · 2w agoSociology is amazing. Our biggest problem is bad-faith actors who maliciously spurn the field because we teach people how societies work and they'd rather we all stay in the dark. Not today, Satan!
Everyone's talking about did they steal Apple secrets, but the news is OpenAI's making an AI companion for us to use in our homes, sold as "a computer built for AI to help busy people be more productive." But these are automated friends & we'll see a social cost. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
OpenAI’s First Device Will Be Movable, Screenless Speaker Built as AI Companion
OpenAI’s much-anticipated push into consumer devices is slated to begin with a mobile, screen-free smart speaker designed to be a new type of home computer for the AI era, according to people familiar...
bloomberg.com
Business start-ups up 35% in 18 months? Could be a positive outcome from GenAI, which definitely makes that easier... Projected Business Formations Within Four Quarters: Professional Services in the United States fred.stlouisfed.org/series/BFPBF...
Projected Business Formations Within Four Quarters: Professional Services in the United States
Projected Business Formations Within Four Quarters: Professional Services in the United States
fred.stlouisfed.org
Will never not sing my praises for @allisonpugh.bsky.social 's The Last Human Job. Reorienting our economy to value the caring/relational work that our demographics will soon require (again population, possible automation of many jobs, need for dignified work) points in the direction of this book.
Princeton University Press@princetonupress.bsky.social · last mo.@allisonpugh.bsky.social's The Last Human Job is featured in Moe Carrick’s piece for @fastcompany.com: “Pugh’s research. . . [is] about what it costs, to both parties, when someone is seen versus processed. AI will not save your culture. The people leader who knows her people will."
I completely agree about @allisonpugh.bsky.social and The Last Human Job. It presents important, lasting principles for our times. Great book. We reviewed it at the link below. upriverpress.substack.com/p/the-datafi...
The Datafication of People
Upriver Press Book Review
upriverpress.substack.com
@allisonpugh.bsky.social's The Last Human Job is featured in Moe Carrick’s piece for @fastcompany.com: “Pugh’s research. . . [is] about what it costs, to both parties, when someone is seen versus processed. AI will not save your culture. The people leader who knows her people will."
The work AI can't do
Companies are investing millions in AI-powered people analytics while starving the human relationships that keep top talent engaged.
fastcompany.com
It's amazing what you can do when you remember that schools have a primary responsibility to the children they teach and nurture -- not to the ed-tech industry or gen AI profit margins.
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 2mo agoBut I was told it was inevitable.
@allisonpugh.bsky.social Pairing your book with @brigidschulte.bsky.social ’s over work has led me to similar systemic conclusions. Love the quote here! Glad to see your work being seen (and not just processed).
Wow! "Pugh’s research was never really only about physicians and chaplains. It was about what it costs, to both parties, when someone is seen versus processed. AI will not save your culture. The people leader who knows her people will." www.fastcompany.com/91557933/the...
fastcompany.com
This is an incredibly depressing that reveals how AI is already being used to replace humans in home care. But it also reveals how willing many are to sacrifice privacy and human connection for a false sense of control.
My Father Wants to Age in Place. AI Will Be Watching
Devices that monitor seniors for safety are appealing to worried loved ones and underresourced home care agencies.
wired.com
Topol is great but it takes him a while to get here: "Frankly, over-adherence to guidelines may presage loss of the art of medicine, not taking in the human factor of each patient & the human-to-human bond...the foundation of the patient-doctor relationship." erictopol.substack.com/p/agentic-ai...
Agentic AI Comes to Medicine
Expansion of Capabilities With Two New Medical AI Models
erictopol.substack.com
"Both men believe that in a few years many medical services, especially primary care, will be conducted entirely by stand-alone AI." Especially primary care! The domain where relationship matters most! How will bots motivate humans? Or offer them dignity? www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
Inside the Trump-backed push to bring AI doctors into American medicine
The administration is laying the groundwork for chatbots that can diagnose illness and prescribe medicine, but physicians say AI can introduce more problems.
washingtonpost.com
Great to see @allisonpugh.bsky.social's The Last Human Job reviewed by @theceme.bsky.social, where Stephanie MacGillivray calls it "...a masterpiece in the art of connective labour, at times technically challenging, other times deeply moving.” Read more:
'The Last Human Job' by Allison Pugh - Centre for Enterprise Markets and Ethics | CEME
A CEME review by Stephanie MacGillivray of The Last Human Job by Allison Pugh, on connective labour, human relationships and the limits of automation.
theceme.org
www.theregister.com/ai-ml/2026/0...
Sick and wrong: Ontario auditors find doctors' AI note takers routinely blow basic facts
60% of evaluated AI Scribe systems mixed up prescribed drugs in patient notes, auditors say
theregister.com
Nick Kapur@nickkapur.bsky.social · 3mo agoAn auditor for the Ontario, Canada government found that AI agents tasked with turning doctor/patient conversations into structured notes routinely hallucinated false treatments, replaced drug names with entirely different drugs, and missed crucial information
“As everyday interactions move online & services become automated, ppl are missing the small moments of recognition that once shaped social life… —these small interactions helped build a sense of belonging in communities. Losing them adds to what Pugh calls a ‘depersonalization crisis’.”🧪
Allison Pugh@allisonpugh.bsky.social · 3mo agoICYMI "When people feel noticed by others, it strengthens mental health, community, and trust. Online networking rarely provides that. “There’s a very constrained emotional range,” Pugh says." www.mitsloanme.com/article/the-...
ICYMI "When people feel noticed by others, it strengthens mental health, community, and trust. Online networking rarely provides that. “There’s a very constrained emotional range,” Pugh says." www.mitsloanme.com/article/the-...
The Visibility Paradox of LinkedIn: Connected, but Not Seen
This mismatch between what humans need and how the platform is designed helps explain why LinkedIn posts often share personal experiences in soulless, professional language.
mitsloanme.com
Congratulations to @allisonpugh.bsky.social and Mark Christian Thompson on being named 2026 @guggfellows.bsky.social. Their selection recognizes outstanding scholarship across sociology, literature, philosophy, and the humanities. hub.jhu.edu/2026/04/26/a...
Two Johns Hopkins faculty members named Guggenheim Fellows
Sociologist Allison Pugh and English professor Mark Christian Thompson are among the 223 fellows recognized
hub.jhu.edu
The end of the barista? Coming to San Francisco is always like coming to the future, question is is it one we want or not?
Congratulations to ASA members Allison Pugh @allisonpugh.bsky.social @jhu.edu and Xuefei Ren (Michigan State University) on their appointment to the 101st class of Guggenheim Fellows. https://bit.ly/4u72rlZ
Check out this initiative to connect nurse managers from around the country, and invite real talk about the relational challenges in modern healthcare!. See more at slowtalk.us/humanize
A privilege and a pleasure to celebrate the 101st Class of Fellows with an announcement in the @nytimes.com 🎉
Congrats to CASBS fellows selected as 2026 Guggenheim Fellows 🙌👏 Damon Centola | Jamie Kreiner | @allisonpugh.bsky.social |@robbwiller.bsky.social | @dziblatt.bsky.social @guggfellows.bsky.social announcement: www.gf.org/stories/anno...
Thrilled to be part of the 101st class!
Guggenheim Foundation@guggfellows.bsky.social · 4mo agoWe're thrilled to announce our 101st class of Guggenheim Fellows. Huge congratulations to these 223 exceptional individuals in the Creative Arts, Humanities, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and a range of interdisciplinary fields. You can find out more at www.gf.org. 🎉
The 2028 ASA meeting will be in Baltimore, MD! The 2028 meeting was initially planned to be virtual but was then switched to in-person. This will be the first ASA meeting in the South since the 2010 meeting in Atlanta.
