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Reposted by Alexandra Mateescu

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 6d

“The notion of AI personhood is a marketing exercise and a legal maneuver that I don’t think we should buy into,” says D&S researcher @cariatida.bsky.social. “Tilly is not an actress any more than, like, Sid the sloth from the ‘Ice Age’ movies is an actor.” www.huffpost.com/entry/ai-act...

Experts Warn This Real-World Effect Is The Most Unsettling Thing About 'AI Actor' Tilly

This Hollywood newcomer has a long list of haters already.

www.huffpost.com

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Reposted by Alexandra Mateescu

The Associated Press @apnews.com · 8d

Over 2 million people across Italy have rallied in more than 100 cities for a one-day general strike.

2 million rally in Italy for Gaza as general strike halts key services

Over 2 million people across Italy have rallied in more than 100 cities for a one-day general strike.

bit.ly

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Alexandra Mateescu @cariatida.bsky.social · 11d

Opening up a talent agency and creating an army of AI actresses named Milly, Dilly, Lilly, Billy, Jilly (and so on) who are all completely identical to Tilly but cost less to underbid this so-called AI talent agency. variety.com/2025/film/ne...

AI Actress Tilly Norwood Debuts at Zurich Summit as Industry Grapples With Emerging Tech: We Want Her ‘to Be the Next Scarlett Johansson’

AI actress Tilly Norwood has attracted the attention of multiple talent agents.

variety.com

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Reposted by Alexandra Mateescu

Tracy Jan @tracyjan.bsky.social · 18d

GOP lawmakers cite Georgia’s experiment as a model for the federal Medicaid work requirements set to take effect in 2027.

A new report by a government spending watchdog found that the nation’s only Medicaid work requirement program spent twice as much on administrative costs as on health care.

Georgia’s Medicaid Work Requirement Program Spent Twice as Much on Administrative Costs as on Health Care, GAO Says

Republican lawmakers cite Georgia’s Pathways to Coverage as a national model for federal Medicaid work requirements that are set to take effect in 2027. A new report shows the program has spent at lea...

www.propublica.org

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Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 19d

Companies are marketing “alternatives” to immigration detention such as ankle monitors, GPS-enabled watches, and biometric reporting apps. But research by Petra Molnar, Daniel Ghezelbash, Carolina Gottardo, and Antonella Napolitano finds that tech doesn’t dismantle detention—it expands it.

Technology is Turning Immigration Detention into an Invisible Leash | TechPolicy.Press

Rights-based and community-centered alternatives to detention are possible, write Petra Molnar, Daniel Ghezelbash, Carolina Gottardo, and Antonella Napolitano.

www.techpolicy.press

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Reposted by Alexandra Mateescu

Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 20d

Trump administration tackling the problem of home health care workers getting wages that are [checks notes...] too high.

Home health care workers help elderly or medically fragile people by preparing meals, administering medications, assisting with toilet use, accompanying clients to doctor appointments and performing other tasks. Under one of the Labor Department’s proposals, an estimated 3.7 million workers employed by home care agencies could be paid below the federal minimum wage — currently $7.25 per hour — and made ineligible for overtime pay if they aren’t covered by corresponding state laws.

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Reposted by Alexandra Mateescu

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 23d

Republicans: "transgenderism must be eradicated."

Trans people: "they're trying to eradicate us."

Republicans: "Saying we want to eradicate you is violent extremism."

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 23d

The Heritage Foundation is going after me this morning calling me a terrorist because I am accurately stating what they are intending to do. Michael Knowles at CPAC explicitly called for the "eradication of transgenderism."

I'll continue to speak the truth of what is being done to my community.

A tweet from Oversight Project (@ItsYourGov) shows a screenshot of an Advocate article. The tweet text says: “This is an example of an element of TIVE rhetoric coming from @Harvard Professor Alejandra Caraballo @Esqueer_in the @TheAdvocateMag. The notion that opposing Transgender Ideology is a form of violence (‘eradication’ here) leads people to justify violence.” The screenshot highlights a quote from Alejandra Caraballo criticizing a Heritage Foundation policy proposal: “They want us all eradicated.”

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Alexandra Mateescu @cariatida.bsky.social · 23d

My dad was a storyboard artist for a commercial art studio for 30 years, and he'd tell me how the transition from alcohol markers to digital in the early 2000s was quite rough and led to a lot of labor intensification. But it's stories like these that make me glad he's retired.

Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 25d

Freelance illustration gigs drying up. Ad agencies using Midjourney instead of hiring human artists. Costume design turned over to AI wholesale. Good work vanishing.

These are the stories of working visual artists, who describe losing jobs, wages, and hope as their clients and bosses embrace AI.

Artists are losing work, wages, and hope as bosses and clients embrace AI

Visual artists, illustrators and graphic designers share their stories about how AI is being used to lower wages, degrade work and even replace it altogether, in this installment of AI Killed My Job.

www.bloodinthemachine.com

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Alexandra Mateescu @cariatida.bsky.social · Sep 11

Anyway, some more coverage of our project and the Model Alliance's fantastic work advocating for fashion models here in Teen Vogue: www.teenvogue.com/story/ai-cou...

AI Could Have Terrifying Impacts on Fashion Models, New Research Shows

Models highlight fears around AI impacts including easier use of “frankensteining” images, and more.

www.teenvogue.com

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Alexandra Mateescu @cariatida.bsky.social · Sep 11

It’s the same stories we heard in early days of the gig economy–unlock side hustles, control your schedule, productivity galore. Playing out now through language around AI tools – our helpful and totally non-threatening digital twins, assistants, co-pilots, avatars, teammates, agents, and so on.

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Alexandra Mateescu @cariatida.bsky.social · Sep 11

Companies like H&M have posed the idea that models can amplify their earnings w/ “digital twins” – a second self they can put to work. Instead, models end up in a race to the bottom to outbid their own sleepless, poreless AI selves while often losing control of their likenesses in shady contracts.

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Alexandra Mateescu @cariatida.bsky.social · Sep 11

Fashion modeling might seem on peripheries of a lot of labor struggles, but I'd argue it’s a telling microcosm of some of its most starkly extractive uses in creative industries: baldfaced treatment of precarious isolated workers as little more than data sources for capture in an AI 'assembly line.'

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Alexandra Mateescu @cariatida.bsky.social · Sep 11

Sharing a snapshot of a project I’ve been working on w/collaborators Zoe West & Sanjay Pinto at Cornell ILR School, looking at genAI in the fashion modeling industry. AI-generated models have been turning up a lot - H&M, a Guess ad, Luigi(!) in Shein’s catalog… datasociety.net/points/fashi...

Fashion’s Data Doubles

In their research on how AI is reshaping modeling work, Alexandra Mateescu, Zoë West, and Sanjay Pinto find a situation ripe for labor exploitation.

datasociety.net

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Reposted by Alexandra Mateescu

Tech Workers Coalition @techworkerscoalition.org · Sep 4

NEWS ALERT: Early bird tickets now available for Circuit Breakers, our annual US tech labor conference! Repost please!

🗽 New York City, Oct. 18-19th

✊ Conference will feature workers from the wider tech labor movement

🎟️ Snag your early bird tickets here: techworkerscoalition.org/circuit-breakers

Circuit Breakers
Early Bird Registration

A national conference for all workers, organizers, and activists in the tech industry to come together and learn, build communitx, strategize, and recognize our collective power. bit.ly/circuitbreakers2025

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Reposted by Alexandra Mateescu

Jay Edidin @edidin.bsky.social · Sep 6

CRAFT FAIR FOR GAZA!
Tomorrow! 629 Nostrand Ave. 12-6 PM

Flyer reading

CRAFT FAIR FOR GAZA / Proceeds will go to mutual aid orgs operating in Gaza / Sunday, Sep 7, 12-6 pm, 729 Nostrand Ave, Brooklyn

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Reposted by Alexandra Mateescu

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · Aug 21

🙃

Richard Nieva @richardnieva.bsky.social · Aug 21

New: Anthropic is making its first foray into government social work, partnering with a Founders Fund-backed startup called Binti to provide social workers with AI tools for paperwork. www.forbes.com/sites/richar...

Anthropic Is Letting Social Workers From Hundreds Of Government Agencies Use Its AI For Paperwork

The AI juggernaut is working with Founders Fund-backed startup Binti in its first foray into government social work.

www.forbes.com

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Alexandra Mateescu @cariatida.bsky.social · Aug 21

And relatedly: www.epi.org/policywatch/...

Department of Labor halts enforcement of minimum wage, overtime rights for home care workers

On July 25, 2025, the Wage & Hour Division (WHD) at the U.S. Department of Labor announced that WHD investigators would stop enforcing the Department’s 2013 regulation extending the protections of the...

www.epi.org

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Reposted by Alexandra Mateescu

Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD MA @arrianna-planey.bsky.social · Aug 11

Administrative burden by design- but with even less ability to trace decision-making processes.

Mind you, OIG & Senate were previously investigating Medicare Advantage insurers for their high rates of denied payments oig.hhs.gov/reports/all/...

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Alexandra Mateescu @cariatida.bsky.social · Aug 7

Black markets always reveal how things really work: "This is a colonial model adjusted in the digital age: European citizens may use their status and residency to be paid for doing nothing, while taskers in the Global South only get a fraction to do all the work” algorithmwatch.org/en/scams-and...

Scams and Shadow Workers: A Black Market is Selling European Accounts for AI Training - AlgorithmWatch

AI data annotation companies are losing control of their supply chain. Criminal networks are taking over the work account management.

algorithmwatch.org

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Reposted by Alexandra Mateescu

Tamara Kneese @tamigraph.bsky.social · Aug 4

I wrote about this in 2020. This shit isn’t new and people are just capitalizing on the AI hype cycle slate.com/technology/2...

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Alexandra Mateescu @cariatida.bsky.social · Jul 29

"Reductions could come in several forms. States could place further restrictions on who qualifies for coverage, cover fewer hours of care or lower pay for home health workers. Or they could eliminate waiver programs altogether." www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/w...

Disabled Americans Fear What Medicaid Cuts Could Do to Them

The White House says roughly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts won’t limit home- and community-based care. Health care experts disagree.

www.nytimes.com

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Alexandra Mateescu @cariatida.bsky.social · Jul 29

There's also the "AI is only threatening the fake bougie hobby jobs, and now only the real (super manly) working class jobs will remain."

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Reposted by Alexandra Mateescu

Tamara Kneese @tamigraph.bsky.social · Jul 22

In our new policy brief for @datasociety.bsky.social, @mwoluchem.bsky.social and I break down the myths and industry talking points attached to data centers. Who benefits from unbridled data center growth and who is most at risk when such speculative ventures fail?

Data Centers Aren’t the Future of American Prosperity

Tamara Kneese and Maia Woluchem cut through lobbying points and speculative myths to focus on what the evidence reveals about the tech industry’s claims.

datasociety.net

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Reposted by Alexandra Mateescu

Steven W. Thrasher is finishing The Overseer Class @thrasherxy.bsky.social · Jul 17

I’ve said it before and I will say it again: liberals and liberalism have turned transphobia into a mainstream, everyday, top tier, omnipresent social crisis. It was a niche problem driven by conservatives. Liberals blew it into the screaming global moral panic it now is.

Tristan Grayford @tristangrayford.scot · Jul 16

This is performative cruelty at its most stupid.
1 - Lots of trans people have their lived gender identity on their passport
2 - Why? What's the point? What about attending a political conference relies on your birth genitals?

www.thepinknews.com/2025/07/16/l...

Labour conference attendees must declare sex listed on their passport

The 2025 Labour Party conference will reportedly require passport gender checks for entry, an application form suggests.

www.thepinknews.com

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Alexandra Mateescu @cariatida.bsky.social · Jun 12

National Guard at the LA riots in 1992, by photographer Gary Leonard.

Black and white photo of three members of the National Guard crossing the street in front of the MOCA museum mural by Barbara Kruger that reads: “Who is beyond the law? Who is bought and sold? Who is free to choose? Who does the time? Who follows orders? Who salutes longest? Who prays loudest? Who dies first? Who laughs last?”

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