Not yet annotated sources:
- Marx, Karl. Capital. (London), Penguin Books, 1985.
- Verdegem, Pieter. “Dismantling AI Capitalism: The Commons as an Alternative to the Power Concentration of Big Tech.” AI & Society, vol. 39, no. 2, 9 Apr. 2022, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-022-01437-8.
Annotated sources:
- Krüger, Steffen, and Christopher Wilson. “The Problem with Trust: On the Discursive Commodification of Trust in AI.” AI & SOCIETY, vol. 38, no. 4, 25 Feb. 2022, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-022-01401-6.
- Waters, Richard. “Investors Must Ask If OPENAI’s Valuation Marks the Peak of AI Mania: INSIDE BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY.” Financial Times, 4 Oct. 2024, p. 8.
- Kruger and Wilson both seem to be reputable researchers with a respectable library of papers on technology – in the case of Wilson- culture, politics, and media – in the case of Kruger. The paper is an investigation of (often manufactured) discourse surrounding trust as an exploitable resource used to establish implicit assumptions and social realities regarding the future of AI. The function of this paper most closely aligns with the Argument and Background labels within the “B-TEAM” framework, but I would like to provide a slightly alternative framework. This article is the cornerstone of the essay, on which most of my synthesis will rely. I will use the concept of interest conflation found within this article – and in a different form in Marx’s Capital – as my primary method of doing three things. First, introducing commodification (of non-material concepts) to the reader in an understandable sense. Second, setting up the idea that interests being conflated in this way is devaluing workers as people, not just as laborers. Third, laying the groundwork for the central proposal of this essay, which is something akin to “building local systems of communication and creation as an antidote to the commodification of the self.” All three of these points, which are crucial to the essay’s health, are leaning on the Kruger and Wilson article as a cornerstone.
- I couldn’t find much about Waters except that he’s the FT’s West Coast editor, but he seems to be a reputable journalist. This source is about the AI hype cycle and whether or not it has already reached its climax. My use for this source fits more cleanly into the B-TEAM formatting as a Motive source. This source, or another like it, would be a great way to introduce the overt – and especially the deceptive – way that AI is being pushed to consumers, workers, and shareholders alike. Pointing that out would serve as a great jumping off point to get into the rest of the essay.