Millions of people learn to play the guitar, or DJ, even though it’s hard. Tens of millions taught themselves HTML + CSS on MySpace, Neopets, LiveJournal, etc. They just did it for a culture or fandom, not for… enterprise productivity. And fandoms don’t want output that disrespects creators.

📣 Join us for #CASPR2026 — CASTAC in the Spring! "Labor and Technoscientific Worlds: Historical Encounters and New Directions in the Field" — a roundtable with Kalpana Shankar, David Nemer & Lilly Irani honoring David Hakken. 📅 May 29 | 10:30AM–12:30PM CT 🎟️ Register: caspr2026.eventbrite.com

New from NPWF: While women make up 47%of all workers, they account for 83% of those employed in AI-vulnerable occupations. The report has more on what AI means for women at work and what policymakers need to do. nationalpartnership.org/report/ai-em...

AI and Emerging Risks for Women Workers | National Partnership for Women & Families

New data on how women workers are overrepresented in occupations where they may be particularly affected by AI in the workplace.

nationalpartnership.org

👏🏻 "They’ve stolen all the works of humanity, the books, the art, everything we’ve ever put on Reddit. They’ve turned around, tried to monetize and sell it back to us and defund education, libraries, public health institutions. People are not stupid." Safiya Noble www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...

The 'Techlash' Against AI Is Here. Have We Hit a Tipping Point?

As backlash against AI increases, it has also turned violent, unveiling a deep mistrust of a system that would benefit from guardrails, say experts.

rollingstone.com

Applications OPEN for the Graduate Humanities Internship at the Roosevelt Institute! We teach current humanities grad students how to think and work in public policy spaces. Real-world alt-ac training. Paid, remote, part-time over two-semesters. See more here! rooseveltinstitute.org/roosevelt-so...

Programs - Roosevelt Institute

Ideas alone will not move the needle—people are key to innovation and success. The Roosevelt Society’s mission is to expand the network of those working toward a new vision for our economy and democra...

rooseveltinstitute.org

A really cool example of investigative reporting from @businessinsider.com, mapping (the often undisclosed) locations of US data centers by tracking permits for the diesel back-up generators they use: www.businessinsider.com/data-center-...

Are you living near a data center? Our interactive map shows where construction is skyrocketing.

Companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta are rapidly building data centers amid the AI boom. Our interactive map shows where they are.

businessinsider.com

Alysa Liu telling 60 Minutes “I love struggling, it makes me feel alive” is a legit revolutionary statement from a Bay Area native in a time when copious amounts of time and resources are being put toward convincing us to opt out of experiencing struggle, friction and self-actualization

Yeah, there's a lot of slippage between "you must pay attention to these technologies" and "you must submit to the current political economy of these technologies," and those are not the same thing at all

Becca Lewis@beccalew.bsky.social · 6mo ago

The potential for upheaval is precisely why economic elites wield AI as a weapon to threaten workers, even as we've seen time and again that AI cannot actually replace what humans do. You can take these dynamics seriously without buying into the framing of the people doing the threatening.

Once again, it turns out “fully autonomous” means “a guy in the Philippines.”

It Turns Out Waymos Are Being Controlled by Workers in the Philippines

During a Congressional hearing, Waymo's chief safety officer, Mauricio Peña, was grilled over the company's reliance on overseas workers.

futurism.com

The real appeal of AI is that it’s a way to make it even harder for people to use basic services that might cost a company some money. None of the people promoting this will ever have to go through an AI agent for anything, especially not healthcare.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 6mo ago

Dr Oz on rural healthcare: "There's no question about it, whether you want it or not -- the best way to help some of these communities is gonna be AI-based avatars"

the Executive Order overriding AI regulations from the states will make Americans vulnerable to technological harm. On Austin's @kvue.bsky.social this week: www.kvue.com/article/tech...

The AFL-CIO should start throwing some money towards labor journalism. If it was done right (i.e. with them accepting that journalists must have full editorial control over what’s published, whether or not union leaders like what they have to say) it could really have such a hugely positive impact

25% of U.S. data workers at AI companies (valued at 5 trillion+ dollars) are paid so little they have to rely on public assistance programs like SNAP. #AICorporateWelfare via the new report from @techequity.bsky.social and CWA: techequity.us/2025/09/30/g...

Ghost Workers in the AI Machine: U.S. Data Workers Speak Out About Big Tech's Exploitation - TechEquity Collaborative

Alphabet Workers Union-CWA and TechEquity interviewed U.S. data workers to shed light on the working conditions of the people powering AI.

techequity.us

man, it's not looking good for the billionaires. All the public speaking students who used to recite the Wolf of Wall Street monologue are now picking Fight Club.

the conversation between Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ezra Klein, two friends who fundamentally disagree, is a remarkable read. Ta-Nehisi's clarity has been carrying me after weeks of feeling defeated by the techno-political moment. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/o...

first day of the semester and in the words of Kerri Colby: I'm here to wake it up!

*presses play on Phil Collins - In the Air Tonight*

Alex Morash@alexmorash.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Media outlets seem to have soured on the AI hype machine.

"How to live? Be soft, get by, go slow, open up, find others, try to be kind, funny if you have it in you. Get things done, think justly, create, learn your corner as best you can." Lisa Henderson, Every Queer Thing We Know

Headlines say AI is replacing workers, but beneath the headlines is a more sinister truth—they're being reorganized, outsourced, and devalued to make automation possible. @samshorey.bsky.social lays it all out in the latest #FiresideStacks 🔥 www.firesidestacks.com/p/patchwork-...

Out now in the AI Hype special issue in Digital Journalism, "Automating Essential Work:" 📰 10 years of news stories 📈 tech company execs become sources when the industry shifts from traditional automation to robots 👷🏻‍♀️ 0 quotes from on-the-ground workers doi.org/10.1080/2167...

Stand by this: www.politico.com/newsletters/...

NEW 📰: AI automation is making government jobs more stressful & error-prone, hurting workers & constituents. @samshorey.bsky.social offers a scan of the existing landscape of AI implementation from across the country & the true impact on workers & efficiency. rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

This hands unchecked power to tech firms aligned with Trump, silencing local oversight and boosting political manipulation. This will impact our elections and explode the amount of misinformation reaching Americans.

The current version of the One Big Beautiful Bill still includes a provision that prohibits any state from regulating AI for the next ten years if they want access to the $500 million allocated for AI infrastructure.

every one of us is all we need 💛

this interview with Ocean Vuong pulled and pulled at my heart-strings. And the comments section too (a rarity) sharing in the loneliness and grief of class mobility. whew. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/03/m...

Sen. Schatz (D-Hawaii) is the first senator to go hard on AI training data and intellectual property, saying what we're really talking about is training AIs on all of human achievement up to now — spitting out "what appears to be knowledge" without compensation for the humans who generated it.

My students taking the final exam after enduring a semester of in-class critical engagement activities:

Students Thankful Standardized Curriculum Sparing Them From Free-Spirited Teacher’s Antics

HAVERHILL, MA—Conveying their eagerness to dodge the possibility of any classroom role-playing exercises or featured guest speakers, 10th-grade students at East High School told reporters Thursday the...

theonion.com

Imagine if projector salespeople told you projectors were great in the classroom not because they let everybody see an image better but rather because now every course could be about projectors, because projectors are the future and the time to opt out of talking about projectors all day has passed.

📑 teaching tip: On the final exam, include a question that asks "What is one piece of advice you would give a future student about how to succeed in this class?" (All answers get full credit, unless they're rude). Then compile the most actionable responses into a doc for students next semester.