You Talked to Workers for This Labor Research... Right? (with Sophie Song), 2025.11.17

Last month, Senate Democrats warned that "Automation Could Destroy Nearly 100 Million U.S Jobs in a Decade." Ironically, they used ChatGPT to come to that conclusion. DAIR Research Associate Sophie Song joins us to unpack the issues when self-professed worker advocates use chatbots for "research."

Sophie Song is a researcher, organizer, and advocate working at the intersection of tech and social justice. They’re a research associate at DAIR, where they're working with Alex on building the Luddite Lab Resource Hub.

References:

• Senate report: AI and Automation Could Destroy Nearly 100 Million U.S Jobs in a Decade
• Senator Sanders' AI Report Ignores the Data on AI and Inequality

Also referenced:

• MAIHT3k Episode 25: An LLM Says LLMs Can Do Your Job
• Humlum paper: Large Language Models, Small Labor Market Effects
• Emily's blog post: Scholarship should be open, inclusive and slow

Fresh AI Hell:

• Tech companies compelling vibe coding
• arXiv is overwhelmed by LLM slop
• 'Godfather of AI' says tech giants can't profit from their astronomical investments unless human labor is replaced
• If you want to satiate AI’s hunger for power, Google suggests going to space
• AI pioneers claim human-level general intelligence is already here
• Gen AI campaign against ranked choice voting
• Chaser: Workplace AI Implementation Bingo

Check out future streams on Twitch. Meanwhile, send us any AI Hell you see.

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Emily

• Bluesky: emilymbender.bsky.social
• Mastodon: dair-community.social/@EmilyMBender

Alex

• Bluesky: alexhanna.bsky.social
• Mastodon: dair-community.social/@alex
• Twitter: @alexhanna

Music by Toby Menon.
Artwork by Naomi Pleasure-Park.
Production by Ozzy Llinas Goodman.