FoW

CWU and AI - Activating members and building towards negotiation Addressing the complex issues surrounding AI at work can be challenging. It touches on personal experiences, professional roles, and charged political views on Big Tech. It often involves vague or technical terminology. It’s a topic that many employers will see as their ‘management prerogative’ and out of scope for collective bargaining or even worker consultation.

Addressing AI at work can be challenging. It touches on personal, professional, and political. Our work with @cwunews.bsky.social is designed to break down implications into actionable union responses.

Read more from @adamc-c.bsky.social on phase 2 connectedbydata.org/blog/2026/0...

As AI and automation disrupt entry-level jobs, how can young people from low-income backgrounds access better work?
In Youth Employment Week, we're excited to be publishing this research with the EY Foundation highlighting why internal motivation is so crucial:
www.ifow.org/publications...

💬 The future of work: A manifesto for 2030

IFOW Co-Director @abbygkgilbert.bsky.social joined @isabelberwick.ft.com, Colette Stallbaumer and Christine Armstrong at the FT Women in Business Summit to explore how women work best, and what needs to be done to reshape how, where and why we work

Can Data Centers Flex Their Power Demand? First they need to have the right incentives to do so. Electricity world these days is filled with concern about supersized (“hyperscale”) data centers, those computing facilities that use more ele…

Data centers could greatly reduce the strain they put on the grid by scaling down operations and lowering electricity use in less than 1% of all hours, so why don't they. In my Energy Institute post today, I dig into the need to improve incentives. energyathaas.wordpress.com/2025/04/14/c...
🔌💡

The problem with workers who can’t think for themselves Education that prioritises Stem over the arts may struggle to teach initiative, innovation and curiosity

‘I talked to Gates Foundation participants who said Henry V had offered them a safe way to consider leadership in action.’ @margaretheffernan.bsky.social on why the arts and humanities provide essential training in the skills that employers say they need
on.ft.com/3XU1y2w

Would “special” menopausal would this mean restricted access? I feel like I’ve needed this my entire life..

“While much of the world operates on a just-in-time supply model, China takes a different approach, hoarding vast reserves to protect against price swings, geopolitical tensions, and climate shocks.”

"When a complex system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to shift the entire system to a higher order." Iya Prigogine, Noble prize-winning chemist

"When a complex system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to shift the entire system to a higher order."

Iya Prigogine, Noble prize-winning chemist

Important for all the irate lecturers trying to convince students that learning to write compellingly, alone, still matters

What are immersive technologies? This explainer covers virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) and immersive virtual worlds (IVWs).

What are immersive technologies?

Our new explainer provides a shared vocabulary by summarising the main types of these technologies, including what makes them ‘immersive’.

www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/resource/imm...

Investors dare to imagine a world beyond the dollar The US could dismantle its own exorbitant privilege by pushing the big bond market beasts into the arms of others

Investors dare to imagine a world beyond the dollar - If the EU could seize this moment and issue joint debt, it would tap in to a deep well of willing buyers keen to trim US exposure. on.ft.com/4iHtsH1 via @FT

Vacancy — PhD Position in Political Theory A fully-funded, four-year PhD position in political theory at the University of Amsterdam. We are open to research proposals in any area of political theory. We are particularly interested in candidat...

A well-paid, four-year PhD position in political theory/philosophy at the University of Amsterdam, to work primarily with my wonderful colleagues Lillian Cicerchia and Paul Raekstad, and also a bit with yours truly. werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

Governments can't seem to stop asking for secret backdoors Cut off one head and 100 grow back? Decapitation may not be the way to go

With Apple pulling the plug on at-rest end-to-end encryption in the UK, and Signal threatening to pull out of Sweden if that government demands special access, it's looking bleak

Governments can't seem to stop asking for secret backdoors. New opinion piece here
www.theregister.com/2025/03/03/o...

Watching the Watchers: The Future of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board | TechPolicy.Press After President Trump terminated the Democratic members of the PCLOB, its effectiveness and future independence are in doubt.

🎧 What happens when a key US intelligence watchdog loses its independent oversight? This episode unpacks Trump’s firing of PCLOB members, the lawsuit announced last week, and what it means for privacy, surveillance, and US-EU data relations. Featuring interviews with Travis LeBlanc and Greg Nojeim:

"The competitions do not actually ask machines to perform human tasks; it’s more accurate to say that they ask humans to behave in machine-like ways as they perform lifeless simulacra of human tasks." 🔥

“Self-determination of national or cultural communities requires regulative structures at the supranational level strong enough to secure relations of equal integration into the global community and protect local communities from exploitation, expropriation and excursion”

Compelling & timely paper stating the case for a politics which recognises the primacy of the nation state, and it’s allocative autonomy (determining relations of production&distribution) while also working towards a democratically integrated global system.

Labour losing support fastest among voters worried over finances, study finds Poverty charity urges Keir Starmer to focus on living standards instead of culture wars and immigration

NEW

First of three papers in a major study from @nprcoxford.bsky.social and @jrf-uk.bsky.social.

TLDR - The credibility of all political parties in tackling household economic insecurity looks set to be one of the crucial dividing lines of the parliament.

www.theguardian.com/business/202... 1/

Call for Proposals: The Labor Economics of Frontier AI - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In partnership with @schmidtsciences.bsky.social, @simonhrjohnson.bsky.social, David Autor and I are seeking funding proposals from researchers conducting innovative field experiments on the labor economics of frontier AI. Expressions of interest due March 31. shapingwork.mit.edu/call-for-pro...

Just seeing the RCT 'scandal' brewing among econs again. This is not a question about some bad apples or some instances of malpractice. The RCT industry has been completely distorted from its inception in Econ and this is closely tied to the incentive structure of the discipline.

This seems like a ridiculous gambit when our huge tech firms don’t have a technological advantage, they just have a user base

Inaccurate AI output is damaging news brands, major media corporations claim In a recent complaint against AI firm Cohere, plaintiffs including Forbes, Guardian News and Politico join the growing list of media companies accusing AI developers of damaging their news brands.

Publishers suing AI startup for ©️ and TM infringement?? Reputational harm stemming from being linked as fictional articles. Now only if ©️ authors could rely on [artistic] reputational harm for being used for training AI models. How the pendulum swings.
www.worldtrademarkreview.com/article/inac...

Satellite rivalries are politicising the world’s economic plumbing [FREE TO READ] Governments are increasingly wary of relying on foreign communication systems

Twinkle, twinkle, little Starlink: my Trade Secrets today.

Countries are scrambling to set up their own satellite systems rather than depend on geopolitical foes. It's all part of the politicisation of the plumbing of the world economy.

DeepSunk

Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy [Farrell, Henry, Newman, Abraham] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy

1. Background to the epochal change in German and European politics after the election. Merz, the presumed next Chancellor has said that Europe is setting out to "achieve its independence from the US, step by step." @abenewman.bsky.social and I explain the background in our book, Underground Empire

New York Times goes all-in on internal AI tools The company said it was greenlighting a number of AI programs for editorial and product staff.

Big AI steps taken at NY Times.

But also clear no go’s, like
1) AI to draft or significantly revise an article,
2) input third party copyrighted materials,
3) use AI to circumvent a paywall,
4) publish machine-generated images or videos, only with proper labeling

www.semafor.com/article/02/1...

Our Co-Director, @abbygkgilbert.bsky.social, is in Oslo for their #AISummit, and has shared this this morning from one of the sessions. Important to understand what the human implications are for co-working with AI tools. As they present themselves as more 'intelligent', do we abdicate discretion?

Program The Summit will begin in the Grand Palais on 10th February, starting with a forum bringing together many stakeholders from around the world (including represent

Our Co-Director, @abbygkgilbert.bsky.social is still in Paris attending #AIActionSummit. This afternoon, she will be supporting the setting up of a new global network of AI labs at the Initiating the AI@Work labs network (INRIA) workshop.
www.elysee.fr/en/sommet-po...

NEW POLL: 51% of American voters polled say they disapprove of Donald Trump’s performance so far as President; 40% strongly disapprove: www.pewresearch.org/politics/202...