"Who AI benefits and who it immiserates often is based on who gets to decide how it’s used. We know how tech is used on the day to day. We should be at the table as well."
I have mixed feelings on this. Tech workers are often the henchmen of borderline evil organisations. They’re looking for a place at the table, rather than to hold the companies accountable.
Of course, if it’s not as easy to lay them off maybe they can afford to risk holding them to account. I’m sceptical though.
well, from where else should come the power to interject with the company’s plans if not from forming unions? Like what does it mean to hold a company accountable if you have no leverage? Quitting and making a post on social media about it?
My question is: for who will they fight back? Meta employees have shown us they only fight for themselves as employees, not the victims of their work. And then there’s what Microsoft did to those who opposed involvement with genocide and colonialism. Many more examples too.
Having people hear about big tech companies unionizing can only help. Unions keep pressure on the companies, and keep them from going too far. Other companies hear about it, and offer up their own reforms voluntarily, hoping it will keep the workers from unionizing. Either way, unions work for EVERYBODY.
It’s good to be suspicious, a healthy dose of critical thinking is well warranted.
But I would advice you consider that everyone and their mother was encouraged to “become the next Bill gates” if they’d showed any acumen in computers at all since about 1985. Also consider that working on a piece of software or infrastructure is often that piece; you don’t always get to see the big picture.
Overall I think this is a good thing; I guess it really matters how this union is controlled. Will it really be in the hands of the majority, etc
Most tech workers I know, myself included, are just trying to pay their bills and not be homeless. Yes sometimes salaries are higher than other fields. Though not as often as you might think. And many people are not trying to be “the next bill gates.” Which as you mention your supportive parents and grandma might have said in 1985. But no one is saying that anymore.
Intersting pint. Not entirely wrong either. The main issue is you said “borderline”. Drop that and you would be more accurate.
Henchmen are usually the people who get thrown to the wolves to protect the evil leader. That too is accurate.
Do you think henchmen do that willingly? I can tell you they do not. You can look at google and microsoft and such, where tech workers have spoken out about d
What their company is doing. They don’t like it. But there are very very few jobs in tech where the company isn’t evil. So the best course of action they can take is to try to get some control and steer the company away from evil. They won’t be able to make it not evil, they just can’t get that much power. But they can make it a bit less evil. And if the union gets big enough it can lobby politicians and such to get laws passed that can further contain the evil. So it’s kinda just something that can be done.
the people at the top are making all the decisions lol, sure there are some that are quite indifferent, but from the AI scheme, its all c-suites, and ceos.
I have mixed feelings on this. Tech workers are often the henchmen of borderline evil organisations. They’re looking for a place at the table, rather than to hold the companies accountable.
Of course, if it’s not as easy to lay them off maybe they can afford to risk holding them to account. I’m sceptical though.
well, from where else should come the power to interject with the company’s plans if not from forming unions? Like what does it mean to hold a company accountable if you have no leverage? Quitting and making a post on social media about it?
Absolutely, if you’re not at the table then you don’t have your say about the menu… because you’re a servant.
Don’t let perfection be the enemy of good.
At least they are fighting back. And now they have the collective power to stop working.
My question is: for who will they fight back? Meta employees have shown us they only fight for themselves as employees, not the victims of their work. And then there’s what Microsoft did to those who opposed involvement with genocide and colonialism. Many more examples too.
Having people hear about big tech companies unionizing can only help. Unions keep pressure on the companies, and keep them from going too far. Other companies hear about it, and offer up their own reforms voluntarily, hoping it will keep the workers from unionizing. Either way, unions work for EVERYBODY.
what does meta have to do with tbe university system?
It’s good to be suspicious, a healthy dose of critical thinking is well warranted.
But I would advice you consider that everyone and their mother was encouraged to “become the next Bill gates” if they’d showed any acumen in computers at all since about 1985. Also consider that working on a piece of software or infrastructure is often that piece; you don’t always get to see the big picture.
Overall I think this is a good thing; I guess it really matters how this union is controlled. Will it really be in the hands of the majority, etc
Most tech workers I know, myself included, are just trying to pay their bills and not be homeless. Yes sometimes salaries are higher than other fields. Though not as often as you might think. And many people are not trying to be “the next bill gates.” Which as you mention your supportive parents and grandma might have said in 1985. But no one is saying that anymore.
Sounds like you live in a black and white world. Sorry, the world is not as easy as you’d like.
Trying to claim that all people who work in tech are in on sinister plots for Big Tech is cartoon-level oversimplification.
Intersting pint. Not entirely wrong either. The main issue is you said “borderline”. Drop that and you would be more accurate. Henchmen are usually the people who get thrown to the wolves to protect the evil leader. That too is accurate. Do you think henchmen do that willingly? I can tell you they do not. You can look at google and microsoft and such, where tech workers have spoken out about d What their company is doing. They don’t like it. But there are very very few jobs in tech where the company isn’t evil. So the best course of action they can take is to try to get some control and steer the company away from evil. They won’t be able to make it not evil, they just can’t get that much power. But they can make it a bit less evil. And if the union gets big enough it can lobby politicians and such to get laws passed that can further contain the evil. So it’s kinda just something that can be done.
the people at the top are making all the decisions lol, sure there are some that are quite indifferent, but from the AI scheme, its all c-suites, and ceos.
also they have literally the highest minimum wage in the united states.