Soc(AI)ety Seminars, Part 1: AI and the Very Old World Order

The ThinkND Podcast

Over the last few years, a growing number of scholars have argued that the impact of AI is repeating the patterns of colonial history. If European colonialism was characterized by the violent capture of land, extraction of resources, and exploitation of people for the economic enrichment of the conquering country, the AI industry is now using more insidious means to capture our behaviors, extract our data, and exploit our labor for enriching the wealthy and powerful at the great expense of the poor.

Award-winning journalist Karen Hao looks in-depth at just one dimension of this AI colonialism: the labor exploitation. The AI industry has long thrived off of a model of building billion-dollar products off of a vast economically precarious workforce. Now it is refining its playbook, seeking out workers in countries of crisis to drive down their labor costs even more.

Brought to you by the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society and the Notre Dame Alumni Association.

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