The Oz
AI is often marketed as something magical, with little acknowledgment of the human labor that makes it possible. Thinking back to the history of automation, from the cotton gin (opens in new tab) to Amazon Mechanical Turk (opens in new tab), technological progress hasn’t necessarily meant better working conditions.
I want to investigate the working lives of data center technicians, particularly those entering tech through career development programs (opens in new tab) for people from low-income backgrounds, and whether these jobs deliver on the opportunities promised.