[Air-L] Talk by Dr Julie Chen at Goldsmiths, University of London

[Lina Dencik]

Dear all,

I am pleased to inform you of the next AI Justice Research Seminar at Goldsmiths, University of London, with Dr Julie Chen (University of Toronto) which will take place on the 22nd of May at 5pm-6.30pm in room RHB143. See details below!

Title: From Swindle to Study: Affects and Subjectivity of Data Workers for Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Speaker: Dr Julie Chen (University of Toronto)
Abstract: In this talk, I adopt an affective approach toward exploring the experience of AI data workers, focusing on how affective encounter and contradictions shape the worker subjectivity. My work is based on three years of fieldwork in China. The affective approach extends the analytic lens beyond the point of production to workers’ life course and embodied experience to capture workers’ precariousness within the broad socio-economic context of China as well as the global AI industry. I will identify and discuss four interrelated mechanisms that shape data workers' affective experiences in life and work: swindle, swiping, scold, and study. From an affective perspective, swindle, swiping, and scold contribute to data workers’ distrust and their feelings of unworthiness, indignity, and powerlessness. Workers resort to the discourse and practice of studying to mitigate the uncertainty and hostility they experience or anticipate, while simultaneously mobilizing their desire for autonomy and self-improvement. I argue these four mechanisms are emblematic of the affective governance and tensions in AI data production, contributing to the cultivation of the individualized self-responsible working subject. However, the practice of studying serves as a peculiar epistemological bridge to achieve the workplace consent as well as ideological identification with the hegemonic imagination of AI power in China. Attending to nuanced yet under-explored affective dimensions of data workers, this talk demonstrates that affects are not only subject to the extractive production regime in AI data industry but also mobilized to rationalize and reconcile structural contradictions experienced by workers.
Bio: Julie Chen is Assistant Professor in the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information, and Technology (ICCIT) and Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, Canada. She is the co-author of Media and Management (University of Minnesota Press, 2021) and Super-sticky WeChat and Chinese Society (Emerald, 2018). Her research focuses on the transformation of work and worker's subjectivity in relation to digital technology, capitalism, and globalization. Her current project examines the AI data work in China. She is the founding editor of Platforms & Society.

The talk will be chaired by Dr Aleena Chia from the Department of Media, Communication and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London.

All welcome!

Best,

Lina

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Professor Lina Dencik
University Research Leader in AI Justice
Media, Communication and Cultural Studies
Goldsmiths, University of London
Co-Founder of Data Justice Lab