Fueling the growth of generative AI is the data work done by many people in the Global South. In his upcoming book, Platform Extractivism: Data Work and the People Powering Artificial Intelligence, Just Tech Fellow Julian Posada argues that these novel technologies follow an extraction model dependent on prevailing social inequalities and transnational power disparities. This excerpt focuses on a Venezuelan family of data workers to exemplify extractivist dynamics at play.

Fears over generative AI taking away jobs consume today’s public discourse. However, one group of workers has felt the impact of this new technology: software engineers. In this essay, Bhargav Srinivasa Desikan examines how AI tools affect the labor conditions of developers in the Global North and South, highlighting that those who benefit from this new tech tend to be more senior and come from the Global North.

In their recently published book, Against Tech Oligarchy: Worker Resistance in the World’s Most Powerful Industry, JS Tan and Clarissa Redwine describe the nascent push for collective organizing in the tech sector, based on their experiences in tech industry and interviews with other organizers. In this excerpt, they highlight the importance of conflict in union building and how tech companies undermine unionization drives.

Many hours of frustrating and long hours of work energize the robots we all see walking independently and performing menial tasks online. However, the engineers behind the scenes are rarely acknowledged, even when they control those robots just off camera. In this essay, Yifan Miller gives us a peek behind the curtain, showing the hidden labor that goes into making machines autonomous. In doing so, she raises important questions about cost of labor, allocation of resources, and accountability.