Annie McClanahan
@anniemcc.bsky.social
Vulgar Marxist, Kentucky proud, fuck work. She/her
anniemcclanahan.com
anniemcclanahan.com
Reposted by Annie McClanahan
I find this question about whether chatbots are “alive” to be truly, truly boring. You can torture a definition of “life” so that it includes chatbots or you can listen to actual, unequivocal flesh-and-blood people talking about harm it does them *right now*.
Experiments conducted with the A.I. system Claude are producing fascinating results—and raising questions about the nature of selfhood. Gideon Lewis-Kraus reports from inside the company that designed it, Anthropic. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/rOfXjg
February 11, 2026 at 3:13 PM
I find this question about whether chatbots are “alive” to be truly, truly boring. You can torture a definition of “life” so that it includes chatbots or you can listen to actual, unequivocal flesh-and-blood people talking about harm it does them *right now*.
Reposted by Annie McClanahan
To me the chatbots pose zero interesting questions about the ‘nature of selfhood’ but dozens about the nature of manipulation. Here the Claude team pretends they are programming the robot for ethical responses but they land on one that is false and disingenuous.
February 11, 2026 at 3:42 PM
To me the chatbots pose zero interesting questions about the ‘nature of selfhood’ but dozens about the nature of manipulation. Here the Claude team pretends they are programming the robot for ethical responses but they land on one that is false and disingenuous.
I got to give a talk last week about one of my very favorite topics--prison education! So much gratitude to @ucilifted.bsky.social
What Matters to Me and Why: Annie McClanahan
YouTube video by UCI Media
www.youtube.com
February 10, 2026 at 9:00 PM
I got to give a talk last week about one of my very favorite topics--prison education! So much gratitude to @ucilifted.bsky.social
"'AI' may simply be a way of papering over other forms of cost-cutting.
'Outsourcing is a very popular one,' he told The Register. 'They’re firing people because of AI, and then three weeks later they hire a team in India because the labor is so much cheaper.'"
futurism.com/artificial-i...
'Outsourcing is a very popular one,' he told The Register. 'They’re firing people because of AI, and then three weeks later they hire a team in India because the labor is so much cheaper.'"
futurism.com/artificial-i...
February 10, 2026 at 6:23 PM
"'AI' may simply be a way of papering over other forms of cost-cutting.
'Outsourcing is a very popular one,' he told The Register. 'They’re firing people because of AI, and then three weeks later they hire a team in India because the labor is so much cheaper.'"
futurism.com/artificial-i...
'Outsourcing is a very popular one,' he told The Register. 'They’re firing people because of AI, and then three weeks later they hire a team in India because the labor is so much cheaper.'"
futurism.com/artificial-i...
Reposted by Annie McClanahan
HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW: “.. In our in-progress research, we discovered that AI tools didn’t reduce work, they consistently intensified it.”
hbr.org/2026/02/ai-d...
hbr.org/2026/02/ai-d...
February 10, 2026 at 1:17 PM
HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW: “.. In our in-progress research, we discovered that AI tools didn’t reduce work, they consistently intensified it.”
hbr.org/2026/02/ai-d...
hbr.org/2026/02/ai-d...
Reposted by Annie McClanahan
this has been going on in non-fiction and low content books for a long time -- it was only a matter of time; Ms. Hart is selling access to her technique and developing proprietary tech, just taking advantage of how many people out there are desperate for some kind of income
February 8, 2026 at 5:55 PM
this has been going on in non-fiction and low content books for a long time -- it was only a matter of time; Ms. Hart is selling access to her technique and developing proprietary tech, just taking advantage of how many people out there are desperate for some kind of income
My book is now available for pre-order!
Beneath The Wage: Tips, Tasks, and Gigs in the Age of Service Work - Zone Books
Zone Books
www.zonebooks.org
February 5, 2026 at 10:16 PM
My book is now available for pre-order!
I am fucking DYING inside: "AI Slop serves a social function: it offers a supply-side solution to a variety of problems in cultural and economic demand—that, collectively, people want more content than humans can supply."
February 4, 2026 at 11:08 PM
I am fucking DYING inside: "AI Slop serves a social function: it offers a supply-side solution to a variety of problems in cultural and economic demand—that, collectively, people want more content than humans can supply."
Working more with adult students--many of them multilingual learners--who are wonderful thinkers and readers but struggle as writers really makes me reconsider my assumptions about the connections between writing & thought. I don't have a thesis about it but it vexes me in interesting ways!
February 4, 2026 at 6:25 PM
Working more with adult students--many of them multilingual learners--who are wonderful thinkers and readers but struggle as writers really makes me reconsider my assumptions about the connections between writing & thought. I don't have a thesis about it but it vexes me in interesting ways!
Reposted by Annie McClanahan
2000 agents are still here. Woke up this morning to horns and whistles down my street -- panic jumped out of bed ready to run outside, but the cars were being pursued. ICE is still kidnapping people, still getting stymied at every turn, still brutalizing observers because they know they're losing.
The headline should be, "DHS to keep 2,000 immigration officers in Minnesota."
Instead, it seems the entirety of the traditional media went with, "DHS to withdraw 700 immigration officers from Minnesota."
This presser worked like a charm.
Instead, it seems the entirety of the traditional media went with, "DHS to withdraw 700 immigration officers from Minnesota."
This presser worked like a charm.
Homan in Minneapolis: "Effective immediately, we will draw down 700 people effective today."
February 4, 2026 at 4:35 PM
2000 agents are still here. Woke up this morning to horns and whistles down my street -- panic jumped out of bed ready to run outside, but the cars were being pursued. ICE is still kidnapping people, still getting stymied at every turn, still brutalizing observers because they know they're losing.
Reposted by Annie McClanahan
I'm in the new look @publicbooks.bsky.social talking with @anniemcc.bsky.social, Vineeta Singh, Dan Nemser, and Rana Jaleel about higher education, how we have studied and organized around it, and what possibility lies therein.
Defending the Possibility of the University: A Roundtable on “University Keywords” - Public Books
“What would it look like for faculty unions and graduate student unions to collaborate or work together with K-12 teachers’ unions to push back against anti-DEI legislation or book bans?”
www.publicbooks.org
February 4, 2026 at 4:41 PM
I'm in the new look @publicbooks.bsky.social talking with @anniemcc.bsky.social, Vineeta Singh, Dan Nemser, and Rana Jaleel about higher education, how we have studied and organized around it, and what possibility lies therein.
Reposted by Annie McClanahan
English Associate Professor Annie McClanahan talks about her upcoming book 'Beneath the Wage' (Zone Books, April '26) at UC Irvine Labor Center's 2026 Winter Quarter Research Talk Brown Bag Lunch from noon-1 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26, in Social Ecology 1, Room 315. RSVP: https://ow.ly/JjsH50Y22JT
January 27, 2026 at 9:00 PM
English Associate Professor Annie McClanahan talks about her upcoming book 'Beneath the Wage' (Zone Books, April '26) at UC Irvine Labor Center's 2026 Winter Quarter Research Talk Brown Bag Lunch from noon-1 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26, in Social Ecology 1, Room 315. RSVP: https://ow.ly/JjsH50Y22JT
While I couldn't be farther from it today, I grew up *deep* in the Protestant church and I gotta say that I find the singing of hymns in this context almost unbearably moving & powerful.
Singing
January 23, 2026 at 6:11 PM
While I couldn't be farther from it today, I grew up *deep* in the Protestant church and I gotta say that I find the singing of hymns in this context almost unbearably moving & powerful.
Reposted by Annie McClanahan
I gotta go eat brownies and hang with people I love because they kidnapped a baby and I'm gonna lose it thinking about all the other children they've taken that I don't know about. Be kind to yourselves and your neighbors.
I'll also share this in case you're able to help
www.standwithminnesota.com
I'll also share this in case you're able to help
www.standwithminnesota.com
Stand With Minnesota Donation Directory
Stand With Minnesota is a hub for supporting, learning, and taking action to support Minnesotans impacted by ICE and federal enforcement.
www.standwithminnesota.com
January 22, 2026 at 12:58 AM
I gotta go eat brownies and hang with people I love because they kidnapped a baby and I'm gonna lose it thinking about all the other children they've taken that I don't know about. Be kind to yourselves and your neighbors.
I'll also share this in case you're able to help
www.standwithminnesota.com
I'll also share this in case you're able to help
www.standwithminnesota.com
Reposted by Annie McClanahan
The disconnect between management and employee on AI usage is big. At the same time, CEOs are reporting they aren't seeing any revenue growth from AI.
🤷
www.wsj.com/lifestyle/wo...
🤷
www.wsj.com/lifestyle/wo...
CEOs Say AI Is Making Work More Efficient. Employees Tell a Different Story.
How much time workers say the technology saves them on the job is vastly different from what executives report.
www.wsj.com
January 21, 2026 at 2:07 PM
The disconnect between management and employee on AI usage is big. At the same time, CEOs are reporting they aren't seeing any revenue growth from AI.
🤷
www.wsj.com/lifestyle/wo...
🤷
www.wsj.com/lifestyle/wo...
Reposted by Annie McClanahan
Check out this @wortnews.bsky.social interview with @anniemcc.bsky.social, author of Beneath the Wage: Tips, Tasks, and Gigs in the Age of Service Work:
From Tips to Gigs to the Picket Line - WORT-FM 89.9
Allen Ruff is joined by Annie McClanahan to talk about the exploitation of service and gig workers.
www.wortfm.org
January 5, 2026 at 2:37 PM
Check out this @wortnews.bsky.social interview with @anniemcc.bsky.social, author of Beneath the Wage: Tips, Tasks, and Gigs in the Age of Service Work:
This thread compiles what happens to be some of the best Marxist cultural criticism of the year (including a few I'd missed!) by the inimitable @sarahbrouillette.bsky.social
Ah, 2025. Not the greatest. TBQH what keeps me going are my little projects--the opportunity to read and write. I got to engage with some great and important books this year. On Immediacy (and being Very Online):
Autofiction Writers of the World, Unite! - Public Books
Immediacy, here, is an aesthetics of ambivalent aspiration, within a hierarchically ordered and immobilizing class- and race-based cultural system.
www.publicbooks.org
December 28, 2025 at 2:49 PM
This thread compiles what happens to be some of the best Marxist cultural criticism of the year (including a few I'd missed!) by the inimitable @sarahbrouillette.bsky.social
Reposted by Annie McClanahan
first year without a Jclo top 10. I miss him all the time
TOP 10 2024
APT. Rosé feat. Bruno Mars
The girl, so confusing, Charli XCX, Lorde
The Bonk Song, No$hu
Squabble Up, Kendrick Lamar
Taste, Sabrina Carpenter
Cowgirls, Morgan Wallen, ERNEST
Not Like Us, Kendrick Lamar
White Male, BLAKSWAN
Debbie Downer, LØLØ, Maggie Lindemann
Rockstar, Lisa
APT. Rosé feat. Bruno Mars
The girl, so confusing, Charli XCX, Lorde
The Bonk Song, No$hu
Squabble Up, Kendrick Lamar
Taste, Sabrina Carpenter
Cowgirls, Morgan Wallen, ERNEST
Not Like Us, Kendrick Lamar
White Male, BLAKSWAN
Debbie Downer, LØLØ, Maggie Lindemann
Rockstar, Lisa
December 26, 2025 at 3:58 PM
first year without a Jclo top 10. I miss him all the time
I did a really engaging (for me) interview for a rad Wisconsin radio show!
🎙️Starbucks workers are on strike for better staffing, hours, and pay. To talk about their struggle, we're joined by @anniemcc.bsky.social who describes the "super-exploitation" of service and gig workers via low wages and surveillance.
Listen here and tip well: www.wortfm.org/from-tips-to...
Listen here and tip well: www.wortfm.org/from-tips-to...
From Tips to Gigs to the Picket Line - WORT-FM 89.9
Allen Ruff is joined by Annie McClanahan to talk about the exploitation of service and gig workers.
www.wortfm.org
December 18, 2025 at 10:56 PM
I did a really engaging (for me) interview for a rad Wisconsin radio show!
Amazing expose, a must-read. "In any given work day, Asia would assume “three to five different personas” simultaneously...He was paid per message, a flat rate of $0.05 per...He also had to type at least 40 words a minute, and keep up with a dashboard displaying the total number of messages sent."
“The work was emotionally exhausting, with chat users confiding intimate details about their real-life relationships, as well as their own emotional trauma, falsely believing they were talking to an unfeeling AI chatbot.”
AI "Companion Bots" Actually Run by Exploited Kenyans, Worker Claims
A new testimony from a remote worker in Kenya details the grueling and exploitative work behind romantic AI chatbots.
futurism.com
December 12, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Amazing expose, a must-read. "In any given work day, Asia would assume “three to five different personas” simultaneously...He was paid per message, a flat rate of $0.05 per...He also had to type at least 40 words a minute, and keep up with a dashboard displaying the total number of messages sent."
This is a wonderful list of great pieces!
I’ve summed up and contextualized all of these critical AI pieces & more in one place — “From AGI to Workslop: What I Read About AI in 2025.” mail.cyberneticforests.com/what-i-read-...
December 8, 2025 at 5:28 PM
This is a wonderful list of great pieces!
Reposted by Annie McClanahan
Weird situation. AI adoption in the work world is stagnating, while higher-ed institutions are rushing to embrace it so that students will be prepared for…the work world?
“we estimate employment-weighted share of Americans using AI at work has fallen by a percentage point & now sits at 11%. Adoption has fallen sharply at the largest businesses, those employing +250 people. 3 yrs into the genAI wave, demand looks surprisingly flimsy” www.economist.com/finance-and-...
Investors expect AI use to soar. That’s not happening
Recent surveys point to flatlining business adoption
www.economist.com
December 4, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Weird situation. AI adoption in the work world is stagnating, while higher-ed institutions are rushing to embrace it so that students will be prepared for…the work world?
Reposted by Annie McClanahan
Applications are open for MIR Summer Seminar 2026 on the theme of Marxist Internationalism! See the call for applications: docs.google.com/document/d/1.... Open to all non-faculty University of California affiliates (undergrads, grads, staff, lecturers). App deadline Jan. 16. Please share!
December 1, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Applications are open for MIR Summer Seminar 2026 on the theme of Marxist Internationalism! See the call for applications: docs.google.com/document/d/1.... Open to all non-faculty University of California affiliates (undergrads, grads, staff, lecturers). App deadline Jan. 16. Please share!
Reposted by Annie McClanahan
This book is so good and important.
Currently reading “Ed-Tech” by Annie McClanahan & Louise McCune, who see in an anecdote of a dead professor’s course materials used for online teaching a symbol of the broad project of deskilling that’s only accelerated with AI 🔥
@anniemcc.bsky.social
Currently reading “Ed-Tech” by Annie McClanahan & Louise McCune, who see in an anecdote of a dead professor’s course materials used for online teaching a symbol of the broad project of deskilling that’s only accelerated with AI 🔥
@anniemcc.bsky.social
November 29, 2025 at 3:31 PM
This book is so good and important.
Currently reading “Ed-Tech” by Annie McClanahan & Louise McCune, who see in an anecdote of a dead professor’s course materials used for online teaching a symbol of the broad project of deskilling that’s only accelerated with AI 🔥
@anniemcc.bsky.social
Currently reading “Ed-Tech” by Annie McClanahan & Louise McCune, who see in an anecdote of a dead professor’s course materials used for online teaching a symbol of the broad project of deskilling that’s only accelerated with AI 🔥
@anniemcc.bsky.social