{"id":2295,"date":"2026-09-17T21:25:47","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T21:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/?p=2295"},"modified":"2026-09-17T21:25:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T21:25:48","slug":"feeding-the-machine-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/?p=2295&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Feeding the Machine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">James Muldoon, Mark Graham and Callum Cant, <em>Feeding the Machine: The Hidden Human Labor Powering A.I.<\/em>, New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024, 288 pp. ISBN: 978-1-63973-496-2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">James Muldoon, Mark Graham and Callum Cant\u2019s <em>Feeding the Machine<\/em> challenges the widespread narrative that sees artificial intelligence as an autonomous and automated technology replacing human labour by examining <strong>the invisible global network of labour behind AI systems<\/strong>. Based on more than a decade of research, hundreds of interviews, and thousands of hours of fieldwork, the book brings together within the same system of production the different forms of labour that make the production and operation of AI possible, from data annotators and content moderators to engineers and data centre workers, and from artists to warehouse workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the book\u2019s central concepts is the idea of artificial intelligence as an <strong>\u201cextraction machine\u201d<\/strong>. The authors show that AI consists not simply of large datasets and sophisticated algorithms, but depends on a global infrastructure into which people\u2019s collective knowledge, labour, and cultural production are continuously fed. This production chain is also shaped by geographical and social inequalities: while low-paid and precarious work is often outsourced to more vulnerable segments of the global labour market, economic value and decision-making power are concentrated in large technology companies. The book also examines these relations in connection with histories of gender inequality, racialisation, and colonialism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Within this framework, <em>Feeding the Machine<\/em> takes the debate about artificial intelligence beyond the question of whether \u201cAI will eliminate people\u2019s jobs.\u201d <strong>The central issue is not whether AI eliminates labour, but what forms of human labour it depends on, under what conditions this labour is performed, and how the resulting value and power are distributed.<\/strong> Data annotation and content moderation are among the most visible examples: the data that enable AI systems to \u201clearn\u201d are often produced through the classification, evaluation, and moderation activities of thousands of workers. Automation and human labour thus cease to appear as opposites; instead, a vast infrastructure of human labour becomes visible behind apparently automated systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The book also examines a second dimension of the relationship between artificial intelligence and labour: the transformation of AI into <strong>a technology used to manage and control labour<\/strong>. Through warehouses and other digitally managed workplaces, it shows how algorithmic systems are used to measure workers\u2019 performance, determine the pace of work, and regulate the labour process. A two-way relationship therefore emerges: <strong>while workers make AI systems possible, these systems increasingly become part of the labour infrastructure that manages and controls workers.<\/strong> This approach makes it possible to understand algorithmic management not simply as a technical innovation, but as a new form of power and control within the labour process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Feeding the Machine<\/em> not only exposes the labour regime of the AI economy but also discusses alternatives that might be developed in response to these relations. In its final sections, the book considers a range of possibilities, from strengthening worker organisation and international solidarity networks to regulating labour standards, and from <strong>workplace democracy and worker cooperatives to alternative forms of ownership and governance<\/strong>. At the same time, the authors do not overlook the structural constraints that democratic enterprises and cooperatives encounter within capitalist market relations. A discussion of more democratic technology therefore extends beyond the design of algorithms to the ownership and power structures of the institutions that produce technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this respect, <em>Feeding the Machine<\/em> directly connects debates on digital labour and artificial intelligence with questions of the labour process, class relations, and democratic control. <strong>Its demonstration that artificial intelligence is not a \u201chumanless\u201d technology but a system of production based on human labour organised on a global scale<\/strong> constitutes one of the book\u2019s central contributions. At the same time, by emphasising that technology is neither neutral nor independent of social relations, it raises questions about who produces AI, who controls it, and which social purposes it serves. In this way, the book provides an important basis for discussing not only capital\u2019s control over digital labour but also worker power, democratic control over technology, and alternative forms of organisation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>James Muldoon, Mark Graham and Callum Cant, Feeding the Machine: The Hidden Human Labor Powering A.I., New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024, 288 pp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital-labour","category-resources"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2296,"href":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2295\/revisions\/2296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iscidenetimi.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}