Ghost Work

Big tech gives the illusion that everything can be accomplished with the power of computation. And yet no labor sector seems to have grown more in the last couple of years than the hidden away gig economy. Humans doing the tasks that code can't. Through Amazon's Mechanical Turk and similar platforms, they type, label, categorize, moderate, proofread, translate, flag and tag. They are the hidden power that helps span the gap across A.I.'s “last mile” problem. There's a big variety to gig work, with low-skills-required micro tasks on one end, and highly specialized freelance projects on the other end. What they have in common is, that worker and employer are connected through an API. Simplifying and dehumanizing the hiring process. Which comes with pros (no discrimination based on gender/religion/ethnicity) and cons (no security net). I love how working on these platforms seems to give a lot of women in patriarchal societies a way to achieve a level of independence. And women who are primarily caregivers, also can join the work force, due to gig work's flexibility in scheduling. This is a very well researched book based on lots of interviews and data surveys (luckily gig workers love filling out surveys AND getting paid for doing so). There are estimates that the on-demand gig-economy will employ 65% of the total workforce by 2055. I kept thinking of the portrayal of that in S.B. Divya's [b:Machinehood 54655515 Machinehood S.B. Divya https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1595569254l/54655515.SY75.jpg 84737359].

has been on my tbr forever!!! really insightful work and super accessible. maybe i'll add more once i've sat with this, but i particularly enjoyed the authors' point about how gig work has always been around and in struggle. also thoroughly enjoyed the part where they talk about the self-made communities. i wish i got to hear in-depth about the anecdote of ghost workers pitching in to buy their colleague a new computer!