What is Work Worth? What Generative AI Means for Workers' Lives and Labor

As employers integrate generative AI into workplaces, the application of these technologies can obscure how they enable new dynamics of extraction, devalue human labor, and build on older practices of algorithmic control. The impacts of generative AI have been felt across a wide range of industries, including healthcare, education, retail, and the public sector. Labor unions, worker organizations, and workers themselves have begun to grapple not only with displacement but with fundamental shifts in how they experience their workplaces.

At the center of these issues is the question of value. Generative AI models are marketed as the next revolution in work automation: intelligent and creative, capable of producing compelling stories, effective code, and hyper-realistic artwork that mimics human creativity in a fraction of the time and expense. This has led to a variety of economic predictions, ranging from the potential of mass job losses to the possibility of huge economic and social gains.

But AI is not just about displacement, nor is it just about “augmentation” of work. There is an urgent need to understand the uneven effects of these technologies across industries and on a broad diversity of workers, particularly as arbitrarily constructed divides about what is valuable and who is doing valuable work informs our understanding of the future.

On Tuesday, May 6, 2025 from 5-6 p.m. ET, join Dr. Julián Posada and Aiha Nguyen onsite in NYC for this public event, which sets the stage for our online workshop “What is Work Worth? Exploring What Generative AI Means for Workers’ Lives and Labor.”

4:30 p.m. ET Doors open

5-6 p.m. ET Keynote and discussion (livestreamed)

6-7 p.m. ET Reception

Accessibility

Registration is required. To join onsite in NYC, your RSVP name must match your legal ID for entry. For security reasons, we require online guests to have an authorized Zoom account in order to participate. To register, sign up for a free Zoom account. Otherwise, please stay tuned for video to be posted on our website soon after the event. Closed captioning provided online. Please email events@datasociety.net with any other accessibility needs at least 72 hours prior to the event.

Speakers

Dr. Julián Posada is an assistant professor of American Studies at Yale University and SSRC Just Tech Fellow. His research explores the social and cultural dimensions of information, with a particular focus on the relationship between labor and artificial intelligence development. His work has been published in prominent sociology, information science, and computer science journals, including Big Data & Society and Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. Dr. Posada has established a public profile through his scholarship, including a report commissioned by the federal government of Canada, and his research has been featured in publications including The Economist, WIRED, and MIT Technology Review. He holds a Ph.D. in information science from the University of Toronto and has held visiting appointments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Weizenbaum Institute.

Aiha Nguyen, Data & Society’s Labor Futures Program Director, guides research and engagement that interrogates how technology is disrupting, destabilizing, and transforming many aspects of work and employment. She has expanded the organization’s research on workplace monitoring and algorithmic management, disentangling the consequences of datafication on worker privacy and working conditions. With interests at the intersection of labor, technology, and urban studies, she works to help shift the debate toward community and worker-centered discussions and solutions. She is author of the Data & Society report The Constant Boss: Work Under Digital Surveillance and co-author of At the Digital Doorstep: How Customers Use Doorbell Cameras to Manage Delivery Workers. She is currently pursuing research into generative AI’s labor impacts. Aiha brings a practitioner’s perspective to this work, with over a decade of experience in community and worker advocacy and organizing. Previously, she worked at the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), where she focused on raising job standards for retail, airport, and other service workers; and addressing issues of food access, safety and security, and local governance. Aiha received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Data & Society Events

Data & Society events present timely conversations about the purpose and power of technology, bridging our interdisciplinary research with broader public conversations about the societal implications of data and automation.

Questions? Contact Data & Society Research Institute.