Sam Shorey
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samshorey.bsky.social
Sam Shorey
@samshorey.bsky.social
220 followers 250 following 43 posts
Asst. Professor of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh • Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute • Researching technology design & innovation labor: robots, hype, AI, trash, DIY, repair • 🤖+🚮
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Reposted by Sam Shorey
kimkelly.bsky.social
The AFL-CIO should start throwing some money towards labor journalism. If it was done right (i.e. with them accepting that journalists must have full editorial control over what’s published, whether or not union leaders like what they have to say) it could really have such a hugely positive impact
November 6, 2025 at 8:21 PM
samshorey.bsky.social
25% of U.S. data workers at AI companies (valued at 5 trillion+ dollars) are paid so little they have to rely on public assistance programs like SNAP. #AICorporateWelfare

via the new report from @techequity.bsky.social and CWA: techequity.us/2025/09/30/g...
Ghost Workers in the AI Machine: U.S. Data Workers Speak Out About Big Tech's Exploitation - TechEquity Collaborative
Alphabet Workers Union-CWA and TechEquity interviewed U.S. data workers to shed light on the working conditions of the people powering AI.
techequity.us
November 3, 2025 at 8:55 PM
samshorey.bsky.social
man, it's not looking good for the billionaires. All the public speaking students who used to recite the Wolf of Wall Street monologue are now picking Fight Club.
October 22, 2025 at 1:05 PM
samshorey.bsky.social
the conversation between Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ezra Klein, two friends who fundamentally disagree, is a remarkable read. Ta-Nehisi's clarity has been carrying me after weeks of feeling defeated by the techno-political moment.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/o...
Screen shot: "I am descended from people who, in their lifetime, fought with all their might for the destruction of chattel slavery in this country. And they never saw it. They never saw it. In my personal belief system, they died in defeat, in darkness. So I guess the privilege that I draw out of this, the honor that I draw out of this, is not that things will necessarily be better in my lifetime, but that I will make the contribution that I am supposed to make."
September 30, 2025 at 5:27 PM
samshorey.bsky.social
first day of the semester and in the words of Kerri Colby: I'm here to wake it up!
August 25, 2025 at 1:20 PM
samshorey.bsky.social
*presses play on Phil Collins - In the Air Tonight*
alexmorash.bsky.social Alex Morash @alexmorash.bsky.social · Aug 20
Media outlets seem to have soured on the AI hype machine.
August 20, 2025 at 3:10 PM
samshorey.bsky.social
"How to live? Be soft, get by, go slow, open up, find others, try to be kind, funny if you have it in you. Get things done, think justly, create, learn your corner as best you can."

Lisa Henderson, Every Queer Thing We Know
August 8, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by Sam Shorey
rooseveltforward.org
Headlines say AI is replacing workers, but beneath the headlines is a more sinister truth—they're being reorganized, outsourced, and devalued to make automation possible.

@samshorey.bsky.social lays it all out in the latest #FiresideStacks 🔥 www.firesidestacks.com/p/patchwork-...
Promotional graphic for fireside stacks
August 7, 2025 at 8:26 PM
samshorey.bsky.social
Out now in the AI Hype special issue in Digital Journalism, "Automating Essential Work:"
📰 10 years of news stories
📈 tech company execs become sources when the industry shifts from traditional automation to robots
👷🏻‍♀️ 0 quotes from on-the-ground workers

doi.org/10.1080/2167...
August 4, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Reposted by Sam Shorey
meredithmeredith.bsky.social
Stand by this: www.politico.com/newsletters/...
What’s a technology that you think is overhyped? I’m going to give a sideways answer to this, which is that the venture capital business model needs to be understood as requiring hype. You can go back to the Netscape IPO, and that was the proof point that made venture capital the financial lifeblood of the tech industry. Venture capital looks at valuations and growth, not necessarily at profit or revenue. So you don’t actually have to invest in technology that works, or that even makes a profit, you simply have to have a narrative that is compelling enough to float those valuations. So you see this repetitive and exhausting hype cycle as a feature in this industry. A couple of years ago, you would have been asking me about the metaverse, then last year, you would have asked me about Web3 and crypto, and for each of these inflection points there’s an Andreessen Horowitz manifesto. It’s not simply that one piece of technology is overhyped, it’s that hype is a necessary ingredient of the current business ecosystem of the tech industry. We should examine how often the financial incentive for hype is rewarded without any real social returns, without any meaningful progress in technology, without these tools and services and worlds ever actually manifesting. That’s key to understanding the growing chasm between the narrative of techno-optimists and the reality of our tech-encumbered world.
February 19, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Reposted by Sam Shorey
rooseveltinstitute.org
NEW 📰: AI automation is making government jobs more stressful & error-prone, hurting workers & constituents.

@samshorey.bsky.social offers a scan of the existing landscape of AI implementation from across the country & the true impact on workers & efficiency. rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...
[T]he public sector should not be a testing ground for tools that haven’t been evaluated, tested, and established as truly beneficial.
July 15, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Reposted by Sam Shorey
candersonjax.bsky.social
This hands unchecked power to tech firms aligned with Trump, silencing local oversight and boosting political manipulation. This will impact our elections and explode the amount of misinformation reaching Americans.
June 28, 2025 at 6:49 PM
samshorey.bsky.social
The current version of the One Big Beautiful Bill still includes a provision that prohibits any state from regulating AI for the next ten years if they want access to the $500 million allocated for AI infrastructure.
June 28, 2025 at 6:37 PM
samshorey.bsky.social
every one of us is all we need 💛
June 11, 2025 at 10:07 PM
samshorey.bsky.social
this interview with Ocean Vuong pulled and pulled at my heart-strings. And the comments section too (a rarity) sharing in the loneliness and grief of class mobility. whew. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/03/m...
don’t fetishize an identity of “writer.” To me, what you and I are doing is the same work. My teaching is the same work. When I give a talk at a university, it’s the same thing. How do you characterize that work? A kind of sincerity, of figuring this out. I think that’s it. A Buddhist sutra says to engage the phenomena of the world with earnestness. I’ve always valued that.
May 12, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Reposted by Sam Shorey
willoremus.com
Sen. Schatz (D-Hawaii) is the first senator to go hard on AI training data and intellectual property, saying what we're really talking about is training AIs on all of human achievement up to now — spitting out "what appears to be knowledge" without compensation for the humans who generated it.
May 8, 2025 at 3:23 PM
samshorey.bsky.social
My students taking the final exam after enduring a semester of in-class critical engagement activities:
Students Thankful Standardized Curriculum Sparing Them From Free-Spirited Teacher’s Antics
HAVERHILL, MA—Conveying their eagerness to dodge the possibility of any classroom role-playing exercises or featured guest speakers, 10th-grade students at East High School told reporters Thursday the...
theonion.com
May 8, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by Sam Shorey
tedmccormick.bsky.social
Imagine if projector salespeople told you projectors were great in the classroom not because they let everybody see an image better but rather because now every course could be about projectors, because projectors are the future and the time to opt out of talking about projectors all day has passed.
May 6, 2025 at 3:20 PM
samshorey.bsky.social
📑 teaching tip: On the final exam, include a question that asks "What is one piece of advice you would give a future student about how to succeed in this class?" (All answers get full credit, unless they're rude).

Then compile the most actionable responses into a doc for students next semester.
May 6, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Reposted by Sam Shorey
rooseveltinstitute.org
The future of AI shouldn’t be left in the hands of tech billionaires and corporations.

Workers must have a real voice in how AI is deployed. Explore more on why we need a pro-worker agenda for AI that includes real safeguards and worker-centered policies. #restoringdemocracy
sharblock.bsky.social Sharon Block @sharblock.bsky.social · May 1
Honored to be part of this collection from @rooseveltinstitute.org to show a path out of the chaos into economic fairness. @michelleimiller.bsky.social and I offer a vision of AI policy that puts workers in the lead. @cljeharvard.bsky.social
rooseveltinstitute.org Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinstitute.org · Apr 29
NEW: Americans need a government that delivers stability and security—not chaos.

Our new essay collection brings together great minds to imagine how democracy can better deliver the economy Americans need and want. rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...
May 2, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Reposted by Sam Shorey
jonathancohn.bsky.social
The bipartisan belief that America would be a better place if *other people* worked in a factory.

www.ft.com/content/8459...
80+% of both Democrats and Republicans believe America would be better off if more Americans worked in manufacturing, but < 30% say that about themselves.
April 13, 2025 at 5:44 PM
samshorey.bsky.social
No matter how cool the videos look, the important thing about this robot "poised to move into our homes so it can help with the daily chores" is actually 10+ paragraphs into the article:

It is controlled by a Norwegian guy in the basement!
Invasion of the Home Humanoid Robots
www.nytimes.com
April 10, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Reposted by Sam Shorey
wolvendamien.bsky.social
I spend so much time trying to get people riled up about terrible "AI" so we can work on different, non-terrible ways to build "AI," & also be informed enough about "AI" to be able to call our reps or stand up in town halls & council meetings & talk about why shitty "AI" shouldn't be woven into govt
April 4, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by Sam Shorey
aflcio.org
The labor movement will not stand by and let Elon Musk and DOGE gut the essential services that working people rely on without a fight.

Join AFL-CIO President @lizshuler.bsky.social, labor leaders, and allies TONIGHT for a webinar on how we stop their power grab: actionnetwork.org/events/mar13...
March 13, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Reposted by Sam Shorey
randomwalker.bsky.social
Years of constant AI hype + deliberate use of the umbrella term AI to refer to wholly unrelated applications such as text generation and values-based decision making (the main point of "AI Snake Oil") has confused the public enough that replacing civil servants with AI seems at least plausible. 1/2
February 11, 2025 at 5:13 PM