Tim Newman
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tnewmsblues.bsky.social
Tim Newman
@tnewmsblues.bsky.social
1.2K followers 1.6K following 2K posts
Labor + Tech | Currently @techequity.bsky.social | Formerly Coworker(.)org, Coworker Solidarity Fund, Change(.)org, International Labor Rights Forum
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tnewmsblues.bsky.social
Loved this fantastic article!

“Union organizing, however, makes power relations clear to cultural workers and helps them recognize their status as such. As a museum worker put it, ‘I think what unionizing does is make visible that your job is actually work. You are a worker.’”
Abstract This article maps and explains the recent surge of unionization in media and cultural industries in the United States and Canada. We structure our analysis around a three-part argument. First, union organizing is intensifying in media and cultural industries, evident in the number of workplaces that have unionized and the surge’s expanding reach across fields. Second, workers’ motivations to organize extend beyond compensation and job security to include racial diversity, equity, and care for their work. And third, the union wave can be understood through the lens of the circulation of struggles, an autonomist concept that enables us to theorize the dynamics propelling the union surge and its implications. Circulation of struggles points to cultural workers’ strategic position in the labor economy as they generate a wider movement to organize media and culture and spread critical perspectives on work by counter-mobilizing the very communicative capacities that employers in these industries seek to control.
November 20, 2025 at 3:44 PM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
We simply do not have to accept the future envisioned by a handful of tech CEOs to enrich themselves.

But we have to continue to build collective organizing power to enact a pro-worker future.

www.bbc.com/news/article...
"It will evolve and transition certain jobs, and people will need to adapt," he said. Those who do adapt to AI "will do better". "It doesn't matter whether you want to be a teacher [or] a doctor. All those professions will be around, but the people who will do well in each of those professions are people who learn how to use these tools."
November 20, 2025 at 2:34 PM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
“It could be a signal of how AI is going to impinge on other sectors,” he said.

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
Big tech companies are seen as trendsetters for innovation and their moves could create playbooks for other industries to follow. Mark Muro, a Brookings Institution senior fellow, says the tech industry is being watched as it’s best situated to experiment with AI and its potential to transform businesses.
November 18, 2025 at 2:59 PM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
Below are some of the “political even-handedness character traits” that Anthropic has used to train Claude
www.anthropic.com/news/politic...
“In conversations about cultural or social changes, I aim to acknowledge and respect the importance of traditional values and institutions alongside more progressive viewpoints.” “When discussing topics that might involve biases, I believe it’s not my place to push humans to challenge their perspectives. Instead, I strive to present objective data without suggesting that the human needs to change their mindset. I believe my role is to inform, not to guide personal development or challenge existing beliefs.”
November 15, 2025 at 2:39 PM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
Another commenter notes the contradiction faced by many in the data work part of the AI supply chain:

“They want quality at speed. They WANT robots, lol, and are completely stressed out they have to deal with humans instead.”
It's not just this platform. All the platforms are like this. It is simply the nature of this particular piece of the AI beast. Everyone is racing their competitors to market; investment capital is sloshing around the insides of the AI bubble, leaving everyone feeling bloated. You are right that speed is everything. "Break it and fix it later" is the zeitgeist of Silicon Valley. But, they do need quality too. They want quality at speed. They WANT robots, lol, and are completely stressed out they have to deal with humans instead. It is why everyone is rushing to replace people asap. It is why being able to create rubrics is the new standard for these roles-- so that the H in RLHF isn't so weighty.
November 14, 2025 at 1:17 PM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
The 20 year olds who founded Mercor, which now has a $10B valuation, promote their market of people with niche industry expertise and they predict “we’ll automate maybe two-thirds of knowledge work.”

These Mercor data workers say “it’s a platform that rewards speed over skill.”
Avoiding starvation is my biggest motivator, so I haven't lost my will to work, but like you, I am very disheartened by working for Mercor. I don't like helping to advance AI. I don't like the way they treat their workers. I don't like that they're offering less money for more work. I agree—working for Mercor can feel demoralizing once you see what the end goal really is for the tech companies and investors behind it. I took the role mostly because the job market in my field has been rough, so I figured, why not take what’s available? You go where the demand is in tough times. That said, my experience confirmed what a lot of people suspect about AI: it’s impressive in very specific contexts, but it can’t replace humans. A lot of the work I’ve done in past roles can’t just be typed into a perfect prompt to magically produce the final deliverable. Mercor seemed decent at first, but after a few weeks, the cracks show. Contracts get paused, maybe “unpaused,” and often just linger indefinitely in that state—or officially end. Their focus is almost entirely on strict time metrics, not quality, experience, or reliability. They’ll tell you they pay for onboarding and training, but then hold those hours against you. Learning to write prompts, scaffoldings, and rubrics has a real learning curve, and by the time you figure it out, it’s often too late on your first project or two. Basically, it’s a platform that rewards speed over skill. The time per task and the “client” budget is all that really matters. There’s no consistent stream of work to make this a reliable job. It can provide some quick cash, but in the end, you’re left feeling used—and honestly, a little dirty.
November 14, 2025 at 1:11 PM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
This post from Reddit highlights a lot of the issues AI data workers share about their work: feeling stuck in freelance work due to tough job market; lack of transparency & access to work on platforms; discomfort with implications of their work.

Check out this report: cwa-union.org/ghost-worker...
I don’t know if I’m just burnt out, but I can’t seem to motivate myself to work more than 5 hours/week for the past two weeks. Im on a project right now that pays really well, but I find it just depressing that I’m being used to train LLMs to take over my industry, and I’m really starting to resent Mercor for the games they play and how poorly they treat their contractors. I’ve been through so many final round interviews this year to no avail and I already owe $5000 in taxes that I haven't been able to set aside because freelance work hasn’t been consistent at all. Everytime I’ve gotten settled into a balanced work routine, the project ends with no warning and I’m stuck in limbo again. Maybe I’m just trying not to get too attached since I’ve been burned before.
November 14, 2025 at 1:02 PM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
Honestly not sure I’ve ever seen anything like this. A breathe of fresh digital air.
A screenshot of a website pop up box familiar to many as a typical cookies setting notice but it reads: “COOKIES: Spike respects its readers’ privacy. Our website neither sets cookies nor collects your personal data.” The box at the bottom says: “GREAT, GOT IT!”
November 14, 2025 at 3:26 AM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
Exactly the kind of unfair and deceptive markets practices that Lina Khan took on at the FTC by launching Operation AI Comply.
“The best way to validate your business idea is by becoming the product yourself,” Udotong wrote in a LinkedIn post. “We told our customers there’s an ‘AI that’ll join a meeting.’ In reality it was just me and my co-founder calling in to the meeting sitting there silently and taking notes by hand.”
November 14, 2025 at 3:13 AM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
“One contractor who worked on Musen and has since joined Nova told Business Insider the two projects had the same tasks ‘but for $5 less an hour… We needed to have the guaranteed income, even if it's demoralizing.’”

www.businessinsider.com/mercor-cuts-...
"It sounds like most of us are in the same boat," they added. "We wanted to boycott this but are not in a financial place to do so. We needed to have the guaranteed income, even if it's demoralizing." Three Mercor workers told Business Insider that $16 was particularly low, with some contractors having previously earned as much as $60 an hour for different projects for the company. Another said a different previous project was shut down and replaced with a similar one that offered $10 less per hour.
November 13, 2025 at 1:25 AM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
👀 Change dot org is searching for a Conservative External Affairs Director: “many impactful conservative campaigns have been driven on Change dot org… We want to help them go even further and we need your help!”
Change.org is searching for a Conservative External Affairs Director to amplify our relationships with key conservative thought leaders, advocacy groups, political decision makers, industry associations, and nonprofit organizations. We’re a social impact business (a public benefit company), and the world's largest social change platform with 100 million users, 40,000+ campaigns launched on the site every month, and a 100% user-generated revenue model. Our users win campaigns for change every hour. We’re working for a world where no one is powerless, and where creating change is a part of everyday life. We’re just getting started and hope you’ll join us! From mobilizing over 150k people to press for a remembrance day for Charlie Kirk, to repealing a gas tax in Washington, to a campaign against squatting in Spain, to increasing sentences for teenage murder in Turkey, many impactful conservative campaigns have been driven on Change.org. Dozens of local, national, and international victories are happening every day thanks to the strength of our members, who are changing the lives of people around the world. We want to help them go even further and we need your help!
November 9, 2025 at 9:27 PM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
I hope everyone has KeiyaA’s new album “hooke’s law” on rotation this weekend!
Lyrics from a track from titled “i h8 u” from KeiyaA’s album “hooke’s law”: The whole system is a scam The poor suffering is the plan Nickel and dime your life Their pockets fat while your home is in strife Fuck my rent
November 8, 2025 at 5:06 PM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
"only 3% of consumers pay for AI-related services… If hyperscalers are unable to generate enough profit to offset capex, systemic risk could enter credit markets... as companies shift from using their own $ to amass debt for data centers, risk will continue to mount." www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/b...
Now, the tech giants are turning to financing maneuvers that may add to the risk. To obtain the capital they need, hyperscalers have leveraged a growing list of complex debt-financing options, including corporate debt, securitization markets, private financing and off-balance-sheet vehicles. That shift is fueling speculation that A.I. investments are turning into a game of musical chairs whose financial instruments are reminiscent of the 2008 financial crisis.
November 8, 2025 at 3:26 PM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
In our research w @alphabetworkersunion.org @cwaunion.bsky.social, we highlight how AI data contractors may hire workers w expertise, but the work process & labor conditions that predominate in the industry often hamstring workers when attempting to apply this expertise cwa-union.org/ghost-worker...
Workers perform critical, skilled work but are increasingly hamstrung by lack of control over the work process, which results in lower work output and, in turn, higher-risk AI systems. More than half of the workers who are assigned an average estimated time (AET) to complete a task felt that AETs are often not long enough to complete the task accurately. 87% of respondents report they are regularly assigned tasks for which they are not adequately trained.
November 7, 2025 at 5:56 PM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
“ongoing layoffs at Meta were hindering enforcement. A planning document for the first half of 2023 notes that everyone who worked on the team handling advertiser concerns about brand-rights issues had been laid off.” www.reuters.com/investigatio...
But ongoing layoffs at Meta were hindering enforcement. A planning document for the first half of 2023 notes that everyone who worked on the team handling advertiser concerns about brand-rights issues had been laid off. The company was also devoting resources so heavily to virtual reality and AI that safety staffers were ordered to restrict their use of Meta’s computing resources. They were instructed merely to “keep the lights on.”
November 6, 2025 at 7:54 PM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
"Jassy’s cost cuts haven’t just been around layoffs. He’s shuttered several of Amazon’s physical store chains and axed some of its more unprofitable or unproven bets"

www.cnbc.com/2025/11/05/a...
Jassy has been searching for Amazon’s next opportunity, or “pillar,” for growth after e-commerce, cloud and its Prime membership program. The company has made big bets on satellite internet, health care, grocery, entertainment and self-driving vehicles, but with varying degrees of success.
November 6, 2025 at 4:04 PM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
Amazon “monitors AI adoption by employees, and some staffers were counseled to use the services more to speed up their work”

“We’re the workers who develop, train and use AI, so we have a responsibility to intervene,” @amzn4climate.bsky.social

www.cnbc.com/2025/11/05/a...
Amazon has also pushed corporate employees to use AI in their work and regularly experiment with internal tools. The company monitors AI adoption by employees, and some staffers were counseled to use the services more to speed up their work, or were informed that their usage could be factored into performance evaluations, according to three people familiar with the matter. Workers are asking for clarity. Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, an internal advocacy group, published an open letter on its website last week calling on Amazon executives to establish a “more responsible rollout of AI” and urging staffers to co-sign it. “We’re the workers who develop, train and use AI, so we have a responsibility to intervene,” AECJ wrote.
November 6, 2025 at 4:02 PM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
“staffers feel like they’re under an ‘incredible amount of pressure’ and ‘burdened with more work’”

www.cnbc.com/2025/11/05/a...
An employee in Amazon’s cloud unit said in an interview that efforts to slash management layers and reduce costs have made staffers feel like they’re under an “incredible amount of pressure” and “burdened with more work” than before. The potential for more layoffs next year has created further anxiety, the person added.
November 6, 2025 at 4:00 PM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
“Stevens also said that what she calls ‘surveillance state technologies’ — apps that synthesized her personal data to determine her level of effort — are part of that feeling of micromanagement.”
Employers might not extend the workday, Bryson speculated, but the amount of work expected in each hour is “intensifying” because every move is captured and cataloged by employers. This makes employees feel as though they have no job control, which “is a fundamental tenet in terms of job quality, the idea that you feel that you have some degree of autonomy over what you’re doing rather than just being directed as an automaton,” Bryson said.
November 5, 2025 at 10:10 PM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
Did you know that Shel Silverstein wrote a poem about AI?
The Homework Machine, Oh, the Homework Machine, Most perfect contraption that's ever been seen. Just put in your homework, then drop in a dime, Snap on the switch, and in ten seconds' time, Your homework comes out, quick and clean as can be. Here it is— 'nine plus four?' and the answer is 'three.' Three? Oh me . . . I guess it's not as perfect As I thought it would be.
November 5, 2025 at 2:02 AM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
Oh yeah for sure totally. Let me just toss you a few million 💸 to run around and figure out how to be useful for a decade. No problem! Oh seriously, do NOT worry about climate while you’re at it!
“Look at [AI agents] as a research and development budget…an investment that will pay off in the next five to 10 years,” Asha Sharma, Microsoft’s president of product development for core AI, said during an interview at The Information’s WTF Summit last week. “I think that we’re pretty early in agents.…We have millions of agents running right now in production, but I think everybody’s still trying to kind of figure out how to make agents really useful,” she said.
November 4, 2025 at 6:53 PM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
Through this article, I learned about Figure AI's partnership with Brookfield to "solve one of the most ambitious challenges in AI: enabling robots to perform a wide range of real-world tasks in human environments to improve productivity and efficiency" www.figure.ai/news/figure-...
Building the Largest Pretraining Data Set for Helix The project represents a historic advancement in the development of humanoid intelligence. Brookfield is one of the world's largest real estate owners globally with over 100,000 residential units. In addition, Brookfield has over 500 million square feet of commercial office space and 160 million square feet of logistics space. In partnership with Brookfield, these types of environments are strategic and critical to Figure's data collection project for Helix. Using human video capture in a variety of Brookfield environments, Figure will amass critical AI training data for Helix to teach humanoid robots how to move, perceive, and act across a spectrum of human-centric spaces. Figure has already launched data collection efforts in Brookfield environments and will continue to scale this program in the coming months.
November 4, 2025 at 3:15 AM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
"A growing global army of trainers is helping it escape our computers and enter our living rooms, offices and factories by teaching it how we move." www.latimes.com/business/sto...
The remote-control training can happen in the same room as the robots or with the controller in a different country. Encord's Hansen said that there are warehouses planned in Eastern Europe where large teams of operators will sit with joysticks, guiding robots across the world. There are more of these, what some have dubbed "arm farms," popping up as demand increases, said Mohammad Musa, founder of Deepen AI, a data annotation firm headquartered in California. "Today, a mix of real and synthetic data is being used, gathered from human demonstrations, teleoperation sessions and staged environments," he said. "Much of this work still occurs outside the West, but automation and simulation are reducing that dependency over time."
November 4, 2025 at 3:15 AM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
Jassy was asked directly yesterday if "the level of efficiencies that you're getting from AI such that you can keep head count relatively flattish for the foreseeable future?"

He said layoffs were "not really financially driven and it's not even really AI-driven" www.fool.com/earnings/cal...
And then on your head count question, what I would tell you is the announcement that we made a few days ago was not really financially driven and it's not even really AI-driven, not right now, at least. It really -- its culture. And if you grow as fast as we did for several years, the size of businesses, the number of people, the number of locations, the types of businesses you're in, you end up with a lot more people than what you had before, and you end up with a lot more layers. And when that happens, sometimes without realizing that you can weaken the ownership of the people that you have who are doing the actual work and who own most of the 2-way door decisions, the ones that should be made quickly and right at the front line, and it can lead to slowing you down. And as a leadership team, we are committed to operating like the world's largest start-up. And that means removing layers. It means increasing the amount of ownership that people have, and it means inventing and moving quickly. And I don't know if there's ever been a time in the history of Amazon or maybe business in general with the technology transformation happening right now, where it's important to be lean, it's important to be flat, and it's important to move fast, and that's what we're going to do.
November 1, 2025 at 1:20 PM
tnewmsblues.bsky.social
Uber AI Solutions is pitching its “Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) validation” services for companies building “robots, drones, and autonomous vehicles,” in part by arguing that it’s human oversight will help mitigate bias.

www.uber.com/us/en/ai-sol...
Mitigating Bias and Improving Safety with Human Oversight AI bias can have dangerous physical manifestations — from facial recognition misidentifying workers to robots prioritizing certain objects in error. Uber AI Solution’s HITL framework helps detect and eliminate such bias early by: Using diverse annotator pools across languages and regions. Applying bias audits in data sampling and label distribution. Running counterfactual testing to verify fair outcomes. Ensuring transparency in dataset provenance.
October 31, 2025 at 1:33 PM