Workers everywhere are more surveilled, managed, and quantified by
technology than ever before, harming people’s health, safety, and
dignity at work. Gig workers like Uber and Lyft drivers are at the mercy
of these firms’ latest changes to their algorithms and platforms. While
pundits worry about generative AI replacing creative jobs, white-collar
workers experience increasingly draconian forms of workplace
surveillance and algorithmic scoring. Warehouse workers suffer serious
workplace safety violations due to algorithmically-backed “nudges”. Yet,
the bulk of data protection and AI regulation in the US and EU either
excludes workers entirely or fundamentally fails to meet worker needs.
Why is this the case, and what do workers in the US and EU need from
data and AI regulation?
This talk argues that current regulatory frameworks focus too much on
the rights of and harms to individual ‘data subjects’. This focus
ignores the main reason why workers seek data access and protection in
the first place: to collectively exert greater agency and control over
their work. In lieu of comprehensive regulation, workers use existing
laws and technologies to put pressure on companies and leverage the data
they produce at work. Calacci will share what they see as the
forefront of this movement, including ongoing projects from their own
research, and the challenges and opportunities ahead in policymaking and
technology design for the future of labor.
Bio:
Dan Calacci is a postdoctoral research associate at CITP. Calacci
studies the technical, social, and legal implications of data and AI on
communities and workers. They are passionate about designing
technologies with workers and community members that help answer their
most pressing questions about the impact of AI, new platforms, and
surveillance on their lives. Calacci received their Ph.D. from MIT’s
Media Lab in 2023, and a B.S. in computer science from Northeastern
University in 2015. Calacci also has experience as a startup co-founder
and a mixed-media artist. Their writing and work has appeared or been
featured in NPR’s Radiolab, Gizmodo, Wired, Reuters, The Atlantic’s
CityLab, the New York Times, and other major publications.