Blood in the Machine

While billionaires and world leaders expound the dangers of all-powerful, “super intelligent” AI, the reality on the ground is that it's a tech product that’s only made possible by countless human beings, laboring for sometimes dollars a day, doing work like “cleaning” data sets so they’re usable, scanning books and literature into databases, creating usable content, and moderating the output of AI systems to weed out offensive, gruesome, and racist content. These workers are underpaid, overtaxed, and fighting for better conditions—even as AI executives are declaring that the systems they prop up are so powerful they’re about to extinguish life on the planet.
In the meantime, workers like Joan Kinyua and Michael Geoffery Asia of the Data Labelers Association just want fair pay and basic protections. I recently spoke to both of them about what it’s like to perform crucial work day in and day out and yet be completely invisible to the company that relies on your labor—and to the world at large. To help feed Silicon Valley’s illusion that these systems are actually machine gods. And to fight for better conditions, rights and recognition in spite of it all.
Show Notes
Data Labelers Association
Blood in the Machine NewsletterBrian’s Bluesky
Producer Ryan’s NewsletterRyan’s Bluesky
Articles mentioned
My latest newsletter:
Dario Amodei — We Must Pace the Frontier
The hidden workforce behind every AI tool you use: Announcing the data work landscape 2.0 - TechEquity Collaborative
Altman and Amodei address UN: ‘There are many things that AI cannot and should not automate’
Tech Influence Watch
How to use AI doom marketing to dupe the media and rake in billions in 10 easy steps
Frontier AI safety regulations: A reference for lab staff - METR
AI giants tap into the social media playbook: self-regulation
AI leaders call for tougher protections against AI-aided bioweapons | The Verge
AI Labs Want Someone to Stop Them - Bloomberg
The AI extinction narrative is winning out
Models Don’t Go Rogue
Misleading Metaphors, Real Risks - by Melanie Mitchell
Rapid Response 47 on X: “.@POTUS: The United States totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme of control for Artificial Intelligence


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In a year rife with backlash to big tech, data centers, and AI, one company still manages to stand out: Flock Safety. Over the past decade, Flock has been building out a massive network of surveillance cameras across the nation. The images those cameras record are uploaded to a central database, and can be accessed by law enforcement and federal authorities.
Abuse of the system has been rampant. Police have used Flock’s Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs) to stalk exes and to track women seeking abortions across state lines. ICE has accessed Flock data to assist in crackdown on immigrants. Innocent people have been wrongfully imprisoned after being flagged by the system. 
With the anti-Flock movement growing, and more people looking into how to get Flock out of their communities, I sat down with Ed, an organizer with DeFlock, to explain, step by step, how you can start a movement to get the surveillance tech out of your town, too.
Check out DeFlock here.
Blood in the Machine Newsletter: https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/
Brian’s Bluesky.
Ryan’s Bluesky.
Articles Mentioned in this Episode
https://atlpresscollective.com/2026/07/28/flock-cameras-atlanta-clearance-rates/
https://ij.org/police-have-reportedly-used-license-plate-readers-to-stalk-romantic-interests-at-least-14-times-in-recent-years/
https://www.commondreams.org/news/police-abusing-flock-cameras
https://immpolicytracking.org/policies/reported-ice-accessing-flock-automated-license-plate-reader-cameras-via-local-law-enforcement/
https://cybernews.com/privacy/de-flock-america-halloween-flock-surveillance-cameras/
https://www.cnet.com/home/security/flocks-ai-cameras-may-have-misread-over-70-of-license-plates-creating-new-headaches-for-cities/
https://www.404media.co/flock-taught-cops-how-to-surveil-no-kings-protesters/
https://www.gadgetreview.com/flock-safety-employees-watched-kids-gymnastics-room-to-pitch-surveillance-tech
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/05/she-got-abortion-so-texas-cop-used-83000-cameras-track-her-down
https://deflocktheusa.com/cancellations/


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End Times Fascism by Naomi Klein & Astra Taylor. Naomi Klein’s Newsletter, Patterns.Astra Taylor on BlueskyBlood in the Machine Newsletter: Brian’s Bluesky.Producer Ryan’s Newsletter: Ryan’s Bluesky.Articles mentioned in this episode:
The Automation Charade by Astra Taylor.
The politics and possibilities of ‘AI could kill us all’ by Brian.
More:
https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-and-nationalism-are-a-deadly-combinationhttps://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/the-ai-jobs-apocalypse-is-for-thehttps://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/saudi-arabia-and-us-sign-strategic-artificial-intelligence-partnership-2623228https://theconversation.com/iran-war-shows-how-ai-speeds-up-military-kill-chains-278492https://influence.citationneeded.news/https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Americas-AI-Action-Plan.pdfhttps://www.axios.com/2025/09/17/anthropic-dario-amodei-p-doom-25-percenthttps://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5926181-xai-naacp-memphis-grok/



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AI executives like Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and OpenAI’s Sam Altman have been forecasting an incipient AI jobs apocalypse for three years now. So where is it? Well it’s here, kind of. But instead of replacing tens of millions of workers, it’s mostly making them miserable.
Across the US, workers are souring on AI, and they’re increasingly outspoken about it. A new report from Glassdoor documents how workers are becoming more and more negative towards —at the moment that AI CEOs have promised that the products would be making everyone’s working life easier and more streamlined. Yet the data paints a pretty clear picture: Just as people are getting fed up with data centers, Meta AI glasses, and AI in general, they’re getting angrier about bosses pushing AI on them in the workplace, too. To discuss all this and more, I’m joined by Alex Hanna. Hanna is a sociologist, a director at the Distributed AI Research Institute, and the co-author of the AI Con; she’s also behind the Luddite Lab, a project that provides resources to workers who are navigating AI in the workplace. Blood in the Machine Newsletter: https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/ Brian’s Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/bcmerchant.bsky.social Producer Ryan’s Newsletter: https://www.thestorieswetell.co/ Ryan’s Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thestorieswetell.coAlex Hanna’s Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/alexhanna.bsky.social The Luddite Lab: https://labor.dair-institute.org/primers Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 Podcast: https://dair-institute.org/maiht3k/ Articles mentioned in this episode:https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/why-office-workers-are-turning-againsthttps://www.glassdoor.com/blog/how-workers-feel-about-ai-2026/https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/sep/02/we-have-had-enough-thousands-of-staff-at-the-university-of-sydney-walk-off-the-job-over-ai-job-securityhttps://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/01/nyregion/ai-ban-schools-nyc.htmlhttps://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-02-04/unions-urge-newsom-california-lawmakers-to-rein-in-aihttps://www.pen-guild.org/news/pen-guild-wins-landmark-arbitration-on-ai-protectionshttps://www.bcg.com/publications/2026/why-ai-pilots-rarely-deliver-valuehttps://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/amazon-cuts-jobs-its-artificial-general-intelligence-group-2026-07-22/https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-coo-andrew-macdonald-ai-token-spending-harder-justify-2026-5?op=1https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/after-firing-700-employees-for-ai-swedish-company-admits-their-mistake-and-plans-to-rehire-humans-what-happened/articleshow/121252776.cms


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New fronts are opening up in the opposition to big tech. The anti-data center movement is rolling, AI is unpopular as ever, and now, a widespread backlash to Meta’s new AI glasses—termed Pervert Glasses by the masses—is unfolding at breakneck pace. Silicon Valley, of course, is in denial about all of it.
This week on the podcast, to help make sense of this latest revolt against a Silicon Valley project, I spoke with Chris Gilliard, an author, thinker, and surveillance scholar who’s spent many years investigating big tech’s efforts to seduce us with sleek, aspirational products, track us, and harvest our data. Gilliard is the author of Luxury Surveillance, a forthcoming book about this very subject from MIT Press; you may better know him as Hypervisible, the handle he uses online and on Bluesky.
It was a great chat, and Gilliard’s work is absolutely vital. Hope you enjoy.
In case you missed it, I wrote about some of the topics we discuss above in this week’s column:
Other stories mentioned in the segment and the interview:
“Luxury Surveillance,” Real Life Mag, by Chris Gilliard and David Golumbia.
Heatmap’s latest data center sentiment poll.
“Data Centers’ 'Oh sh-t moment’, Politico.
“Flock CEO Begs for ‘Compromise’ as Backlash Spills Over,” Futurism.
‘Darth Vader’ Wants Flock in San Diego, 404 Media, by Sam Cole.
“Man Charged With 3 Felonies For Breaking 3D-Printed ‘Decoy’ Flock Camera, 404 Media,” by Jason Koebler.
“Grand Jury Declines to Indict Man Caught on Camera Destroying Flock Pole”, Futurism.
“Songs created by AI banned from Australia’s music charts,” BBC.
“Apple Music to Add Labels for AI-Generated Music Later This Year,” Billboard.
A brief note about how BITM is working these days: Subscribers get (at least) one written newsletter edition sent to their inboxes each week, typically, ideally, Tuesday or Wednesday, as well as one episode of Blood in the Machine: The Show, which runs every Friday. But I can only do all of this with the support of readers like you, so if you find value in independent, critical tech journalism, and you’re able, please consider a paid subscription. I want to keep as much of this un-paywalled as absolutely possible, and I can only do that when folks chip in. Many thanks to all who do so, it’s very much appreciated. Cheers, onward, and hammers up.


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