Generative AI. Big Data. Algorithmic Management. Robotics. Technologies currently being developed and deployed will change the very nature and quality of work for countless people. To explore the risks of tech innovation that fails to serve labor and envision what is needed to build a better, more worker-centered digital economy, Stanford Social Innovation Review and Ford Foundation organized a webinar titled, ‘Data on Purpose 2023: “Making Tech Work for Workers”’ on 2-3 May 2023.
Anita Gurumurthy participated in the conference, where she provided a high-level overview of how tech is impacting workers and exacerbating inequities. The twin processes of datafication and automation, over the last decade, have disrupted the labor-capital relation with hyper-optimization of production relation. Algorithm too, as the centerpiece of digital capitalism, has allowed for the erosion of labor power. What we see today is the steady destabilization of the idea of work as a social contract and its replacement with an outlook of survival of the fittest. To counteract these pain points, workers are unionizing to demand rights and social security nets.
Read the text of her complete speech here.